Rise of the Satellites
by E for Emma
Summary: AR, AU 20 years after Usagi and friends sent Chaos packing, their daughters, who are all around 14 years old, start complaining of being able to do strange things. Could it be a new generation of senshi, or are they just looking for attention? [[ON HIATUS
1. The Pains of Motherhood

Disclaimer: I don't own the first generation of people in this story (Usagi, et al.), but I did make up the second generation of people (Sakura, et al.). Also, an explanation of Sakura Chiba is necessary. Of course, Chibiusa is Usagi's child, but she exists in the future and you have to be a fool to think Usagi and Mamoru wouldn't have children in the 21st century. Thus, Sakura. She's also not Mini Moon, she's Comet (creative liberty taken because of Chibiusa's mere existence).

This story takes place 20 years after Sailorstars, which means that Usagi is 36 and the others are around the same age.

Chapter One: The Pains of Motherhood

It was a lovely day for a picnic in Tokyo's Ueno Park—the cherry blossoms were blooming in full force, the sun was shining, and it wasn't too hot or cold. Best of all, though, the children were in school and the husbands were at work. This gave Usagi Chiba (formerly Tsukino), Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Sakamoto (formerly Kino), Minako Aino, Haruka Tenou, and Michiru Kaiou the chance to relax, unwind, and to eat or drink too much.

"Makoto, these cakes are amazing," Minako chirped, placing her blonde hair into a ponytail as she chewed on a piece of chocolate cake. Rei nodded in agreement, but made a noise of frustration when some frosting dribbled down onto her priestess' robes.

"Damn it! I just cleaned these," she muttered, dabbing at the newly forming stain with a napkin.

"For once, you're clumsier than I am!" Usagi called out, laughing, which caused her wavy blonde hair to shake like waves in an ocean.

"Ami, I'm surprised you could get away from your work long enough to come here," Michiru told Ami, who was finishing up her residency at a nearby hospital.

"Well, the staff at my hospital is nice," Ami replied. "Hey, Haruka! I saw your race last Saturday. Congratulations on winning."

"Thanks, Ami. It was a tough one, but I got through in the end." Haruka flashed the winning smile that captivated legions of race fans, though many of the male ones were doubly heartbroken to know that not only was she gay, but she also had a devoted, long-time girlfriend who was working her way up the violin chairs at the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

"Minako-san!" called a young female voice, making Minako whirl around to face one of her fans. Minako wasn't performing much nowadays, just reunion tours with the other girls from her former band, Starlight Girls, but her name and songs were still out there and fans still stopped her on the street for autographs. Unlike other singers, however, Minako was committed to interaction with her fans. She did, after all, marry one of her fans and bear a daughter, Natsumi, with him, though she didn't change her last name. "Could you, could you sign my copy of your CD?" She held out a CD that shone in the sunlight and provided a permanent marker.

"Oh, I'd love to!" Minako answered cheerfully, scribbling her signature on the CD and adding a heart. "Here you go."

"Thank you, thank you so much!" the fan stuttered, bowing deeply and running off.

"Cute kid," Haruka commented. "Looks kind of like Sakura, huh?" she asked Usagi.

"Ah, don't get me started with Sakura!" Usagi pleaded. "I don't want to talk about kids now!"

"Why not, though?" Rei suggested. "It's one thing that we all have in common..."

"Can I brag for a moment?" Ami asked shyly, raising her hand. "Suzumi is at the top of her class!"

"Of course! Like mother, like daughter," Makoto replied, inciting laughter in the others. "Sayaka just wants to play baseball. I keep telling her that girls can only play softball, but she says that's misogynistic and she wants to get on the baseball team anyway. I'm so proud of her, though. She's already becoming politically active! She's only 13! She lectured Toshiya yesterday, asked him who he was going to vote for, and when he said who he liked, she was happy."

"Natsumi is so lazy!" Minako wailed. "I have to wake her up three times before she begrudgingly puts on her uniform and shuffles downstairs for food. Usagi, are you sure you weren't somehow involved? Natsumi reminds me of you!" Usagi frowned and threw her balled-up napkin at Minako.

"I can't complain about Reiko and Keiko. They keep surprising me," Rei bragged. "Keiko wants to be a journalist and Reiko wants to be head priestess someday, just like her mother." She struck a pose with a smile on her face.

"Aiko loves it when people make fun of her," Haruka bragged. "Then she piledrives them to the ground and makes them rue the day they ever said anything bad to her!" There was silence.

"Um, Michiru, what do you think of that?" Ami queried.

"I say…" Michiru paused. "Let her beat them up if she wants!" She made a victory sign.

"You know what I love best about this whole group?" Usagi began. "We've all been through so much, and now our kids are growing up together, even though Rei decided to put her kids in T.A. instead of Juuban." She stuck her tongue out at Rei, who reciprocated. "It makes me wonder…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "If they have any, you know, any powers."

"I've been wondering that myself," Ami replied. "I mean, each of our children has inherited a lot of our genetic traits. Not just looks, either." She grinned at Minako, who was proud of the fact that Natsumi basically looked like a mini-Minako. "Do you think it's possible?"

"Could it be?" Michiru asked, worried. "And when would they come around?"

"Well, I was 14 when it first happened," Usagi said. "Sakura is just about to turn 14. Should I be worried?"

"Sayaka's already 14," Makoto argued. "She hasn't told me about anything unusual."

"Suzumi's just turned 14, too," Ami added.

"Reiko and Keiko are 14," Rei added, looking puzzled.

"Natsumi's the baby of the group, but that doesn't mean it's impossible," Minako said, chewing on more cake.

"Aiko would definitely tell us if anything strange were happening, right?" Michiru asked Haruka, who nodded in agreement.

"We need to watch our kids more carefully!" Usagi declared. "That is our homework assignment!"

"Usagi, you're giving us homework?" Rei asked, raising her eyebrow. "That seems highly unlikely." This catty outburst was met with a balled-up napkin.

"Usagi's being serious, you guys!" Ami pointed out. "We do need to watch our kids carefully. Don't snoop around, but just be aware."


	2. This isn't normal puberty!

Chapter Two: This isn't normal puberty!

Sakura Chiba hated going to class at Juuban Junior High School. She was bored by the long lectures, the dull group discussions, and the even duller busy work that always followed. Frequently, she found herself going to sleep, and when the teacher discovered this, Sakura would always have to go out in the hallway and hold buckets of water in her hands. Because of this, she had strong arm muscles, but that wasn't the point. The point was that she hated class. She envied Reiko and Keiko, who told stories of how great T.A. Girls' Academy was. Apparently, there you could choose your classes yourself and your teacher helped you to do whatever you wanted. Granted, that was because T.A. was an elevator school, so there were no standardized high school entrance exams to worry about, but Sakura was enthralled by that kind of freedom.

Freedom, she thought as she sat in another boring lecture, twirling her pen around in her hand. I really want to have some freedom. She looked up at her teacher, who was busy writing on the board and had his back turned to the class, and then looked at the door, which was open. Sakura checked her surroundings—most of her classmates were asleep, except Suzumi Mizuno, and that was expected—and hurriedly packed up her bag. She could smell the freedom.

She snatched up her bag and flew from the classroom, fast as a comet, through the empty hallways, and it took her a moment to realize that her feet weren't making any noise on the loud linoleum floors because she was looking straight ahead towards the door that led to freedom. When she looked down, she realized that she wasn't walking upright. She was flying.

"Oh my God!" she stage-whispered, which caused her to stop flying and land hard on her feet. "Ow!" Her eyes darted around, searching out anyone who could have possibly seen that, but nobody was looking. "Was I flying? Or am I having a terrible, terrible dream that I need to wake up from?" She reached out and touched the glass door, looking at her reflection in it. Generally, she had dreams of looking differently than she does now—she doesn't like the style (long) and color (black) of her hair and wants to dye it like Sayaka does—but her black-haired self stared back at her. "I'm not dreaming…"

She darted into the nearest girls' bathroom, which she thought was empty, and looked at herself in the mirror. She imagined her finger to be a hair-dye gun and jabbed it forward at the mirror, imagining that her hair was now a lovely auburn shade, but instead a small sparkle shot forth from her finger and cracked the mirror.

"Ahhh! 7 years of bad luck! How do I reverse this?" Sakura cried, digging around in her bag for the lucky rabbit's foot she bought once, but instead finding a good-luck scroll that Reiko gave her.

"Sakura, is that you?" asked Aiko Kaiou-Tenou, who was inside one of the stalls.

"Umm, yes?" Sakura said in a squeaky voice.

"It's just me, silly!" Aiko exclaimed, kicking open the door. Aiko had beautiful wavy black hair and blue eyes, but she was building muscle from all the fighting she presumably did. She was also wearing eyeliner, which was against the rules of Juuban Junior High.

"Aiko-chan, you're wearing eyeliner!" Sakura pointed out.

"Yes, I am," Aiko replied defiantly. "Doesn't it look good?"

"It does!" Sakura chirped.

"Ah, the mirror's broken," Aiko muttered, moving to the mirror next to Sakura.

"I did that," Sakura confessed.

"Did you punch it?" Aiko asked, brightening up.

"No, I didn't. I, um, I…" Sakura tried to remember how she made that sparkle shoot from her finger and did it again for Aiko's benefit.

"That is so cool!" Aiko cooed. "Check out what I can do." She put her hand in the sink and pushed it forward slightly, which made a small stream of water gush forth. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Whoa! Do it again!" Sakura commanded and Aiko did it again. "I did something else," she added. "I flew."

"No you didn't," Aiko insisted.

"I swear I did. I was running down the hall, or I thought I was, but my feet weren't making any noises. That's because I was flying!" Sakura insisted. Aiko's eyes widened and her face changed to one of terror, but that wasn't because of Sakura, it was because the hall monitor, Hanazawa-sensei, had just shoved the door open and come inside.

"Takagi-sensei told me that you two were missing from class," she growled in her low, dog-like voice. "Chiba! Kaiou-Tenou! DETENTION!"

Natsumi Aino's class was changing into their P.E. uniforms in the locker rooms at the time of Sakura and Aiko's apprehending. Natsumi was stationed in a mildewing shower stall that hadn't been used in over twenty years, which thoroughly grossed her out. She didn't want anything of hers to touch the tile floor, though she was balancing her normal uniform in one hand, her P.E. uniform in the other, and her bag's handle was in her mouth. Purely by accident, she let her P.E. uniform fall to the floor, which caused her to exclaim in shock and drop her bag.

"Aw man," she muttered, trying to figure out where to place her school uniform while she got her other belongings. She wished she had some sort of rope or something to bring her items back and held her free hand out, pretending that it held a rope. However, something even more surprising came forth from her hand—a chain made of glowing orange hearts. It snatched up her belongings and faithfully brought them back to her hands, but she was in shock. She looked around to make sure nobody was looking, because how would she explain that away? She put on her P.E. uniform shortly afterwards, but she was so eaten up about the chain that she was hit in the head with a volleyball during P.E. class.

After classes were over, Suzumi and Sayaka waited for Natsumi, Sakura, and Aiko to appear at the school gates because they all walked home together every day. Natsumi appeared a minute or so later, holding an ice pack to her head, but Sakura and Aiko didn't show. The smaller group deliberated about what to do for a few minutes before deciding that Sakura and Aiko knew how to get home by themselves.

"Hey, you guys, check out what I can do," Suzumi said, taking a bottle of water out of her bag. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and touched the water bottle, which caused the water within to crackle as it immediately became ice. Sayaka and Natsumi gasped in shock.

"Yeah, I did something weird today too," Natsumi added. "I made this chain from my hands when I dropped my clothes on the floor of the locker room showers." The way she was grinning about it, though, led her friends to believe she was lying.

"Ah, Natsu-chan, you're lying!" Sayaka said, pouting. Suddenly, though, she grew very quiet and looked towards the sky.

"What's wrong, Saya-chan?" Natsumi asked cattily, raising her eyebrow. The sky was growing darker. The weatherman today, after all, had placed a thunder cloud eclipsing a sad cartoon sun over the Juuban area on his trusty map and warned that it would look good in the morning but grow worse in the afternoon. The wind started to blow pretty hard, making the leaves fly off of the trees nearby, but some of the leaves were attracted to Sayaka and began to swirl around her. Confused, she shooed them away; however, they attracted an electrical charge as they dispersed and hit a stone wall, leaving a scorch mark. Natsumi and Suzumi stopped dead in their tracks and glared at Sayaka, who was at a loss of words.

"I just told Yukiko what I'm telling you now, Reiko. She said that Mom's job is stupid and antiquated and she thinks you shouldn't want to be the head priestess," Keiko Hino explained to her identical twin sister Reiko as the two got ready to leave T.A. Girls' Academy. Reiko's dark eyes were flashing with anger.

"Yukiko's the stupid one! What kind of girl aspires to be nothing more than a housewife? In this day and age, women have so many more choices!" Reiko shouted.

"Reiko, what about Usagi-san? She's a housewife," Keiko pointed out, always one to defend both sides of a debate.

"She's an exception," Reiko grumbled. "But, man, do I hate that Yukiko!" She made a fist and then broke it, but Keiko saw small flames jump forth from her twin sister's hand.

"Reiko, you're not going to believe me, but I saw that coming," Keiko said with all seriousness.

"Shut up! You did not!" Reiko insisted.

"Yeah, I did," Keiko answered. "I can do it, too. Shhh." She put her finger to her mouth and a small flame flickered on her fingertip.

"We need to tell Mom about this," Reiko said, her eyes wide.

"Okay," Keiko replied, agreeing with her sister for once, which was a rarity. "Let's go home."

Home was a place Sakura and Aiko wished they could be at more than anywhere else. They, along with a few other assorted troublemakers, were suffering together in Juuban Junior High's detention center, writing "I will not skip class" over and over until their hands ached.

"What should we do about these weird things that keep happening to us?" Aiko wrote in a note that she furtively passed to Sakura.

"Tell our mothers," Sakura answered immediately. "Don't pass any more notes or we'll get in more trouble."

"What if they laugh? I don't think Haruka would believe me," Aiko wrote, even though Sakura told her not to send any more notes.

"She'll at least listen," Sakura said, drawing a smiling face. "Now seriously, don't write me any more notes. My hand hurts!"


	3. Unbelievable New Discoveries

Chapter Three: Unbelievable New Discoveries

Reiko and Keiko rushed home to the Hikawa Shrine, panting for air after climbing the hill it was positioned on, but undeterred from their mission to tell Rei about the weird things that were happening to them. They searched throughout the entire shrine and found Rei in her bedroom, brushing out her hair as she read the newspaper.

"Mom," Reiko and Keiko said in unison, grabbing Rei's attention immediately.

"Mom, something is happening to us," Reiko said gravely, making Rei throw her brush aside in shock.

"What is it, honey? Honies?" Rei asked frantically.

"Do you want to show her, Keiko?" Reiko asked Keiko, who nodded. In the next moment, the twins cupped their hands as if to receive candy, concentrated deeply, and two balls of fire were created within the cupped hands. Rei observed this with her interest piqued and seemed delighted when her twins were able to produce fire from within their hands.

"Ami was right!" Rei exclaimed immediately, clapping her hands together in joy. "Oh, am I glad I saved this!" She leapt from her bed and rushed over to a safe that was tucked away in the corner of the room. It was fireproof and contained what Rei thought were the most valuable things: birth certificates, passports, deeds to the shrine, and a pink stick, about half a foot long, with a red orb at the top flanked by two gold wings.

"What is that, a toy?" Keiko asked.

"No, honey. It's something much better. I wonder if it will still work for me." Rei clasped it tightly in her hands and sighed as she remembered the times she used to have as Sailor Mars. "Here goes nothing! _Mars Crystal Power, Make Up!_" She held the stick up high, but nothing happened. Reiko and Keiko were too confused to laugh. "It won't work for me anymore. You girls may not believe me, but I have magical powers." Keiko giggled. "It's true! I used to fight crime along with Usagi and the others. That's how we met. Ask any of them and they'll tell you the same story." She paused to think. "Why don't you girls take a hold of this stick and say whatever comes to you first. Okay?"

"Mom, have you finally lost your mind?" Reiko asked.

"I mean, we've seen it coming, but still," Keiko added, grinning.

"Come on, girls, just try it for me. Please?" Rei begged.

"Okay, but only because we hate to hear your begging voice," Reiko replied. She and Keiko each took hold of the stick, which suddenly glowed and turned into a red stick with a white orb that had a red crescent moon carved into it. This new development delighted Rei even more. The girls kept holding on to this stick until the right words finally came to their tongues and they shouted them in unison.

"_Phobos and Deimos Satellite Power, Make Up!_" they shouted, holding the stick aloft. Rings of magical fire shot forth from the stick and enveloped the girls, changing their clothes from head to toe in a transformation that only took a second or two and made Rei cry tears of reminiscence.

Reiko and Keiko were now dressed in outfits much like the ones their mother wore as Sailor Mars. There were a few subtle differences, though—their collars and bows were red with white ovals in the middle of their bows, their gloves were white with red cuffs, their skirts were red with white hemlines, and they both wore red high-heeled shoes and red earrings adorned with the same crescent moons as on their transformation stick.

"I have to call everyone," Rei said, excusing herself. "Go out into the private garden, pick up some hay from the back farm, and practice whatever you need to out there. Oh, everyone is going to be so happy to hear this!" She leapt into the air and dashed for the phone.

"You look good," Reiko said to Keiko.

"You too," Keiko said to Reiko. "Let's go burn stuff."

"Okay." Reiko and Keiko went off into the private garden.

Rei's hands were shaking when she picked up the phone and she didn't know who she should call first. She decided to call Ami first to tell her that her theory was correct. So, she opened up her phone book and searched out Ami, who had a few different numbers to choose from. Rei knew Ami wouldn't be home, so she selected the cell phone number and hurriedly dialed it. Unfortunately, Ami was away from her station and forgot to take her phone with her, so it just rang before switching over to voicemail.

"Hello, this is Ami Mizuno. Please leave a message and I'll call you back as soon as I can," Ami's voice said cheerfully, followed by a mechanical beep. Rei took a deep breath and started to talk.

"Ami, it's Rei. Reiko and Keiko just got home from school and, oh, they did the most amazing thing! They showed me that they can create fire, so I gave them my old transformation stick just for laughs and they transformed! Yes, they transformed! They're out back right now practicing their powers, but I just thought I'd let you know that your hypothesis was correct. You should ask Suzumi if anything's happening to her. She might just surprise you! Talk to you later, I have to call everyone else now." Rei hung up, flipped to Makoto's page, and dialed up the number to the Sakamoto Bakery over in Shibuya.

"Sakamoto Bakery, Makoto speaking. How may I help you?" Makoto answered with the canned greeting that was written next to the phone.

"Mako, it's Rei. I have news for you about Reiko and Keiko that could affect Sayaka," Rei began.

"Hold on." Makoto moved the phone away from her mouth. "Toshiya, take care of these customers, will you?" She brought the phone back to her mouth. "I'm going into the back room, so you better tell me what's up."

"Gladly so," Rei said. "You know how Ami was saying that our girls might have powers? Well, Reiko and Keiko do." Makoto gasped.

"You're kidding," she insisted.

"I swear I'm not. They both came up to me today and showed me that they could create fire, so I let them hold my old transformation stick and they transformed! Oh, Makoto, they look so adorable. They're out in the garden right now setting stacks of hay on fire. Oh, happy day! If only their lousy father could see them now." Rei giggled maliciously.

"Whatever became of Yuuichirou after he left, anyway?" Makoto asked.

"Hell if I know. I think some of his buddies have a band now and they're on tour or something. I think he knows that if he comes back, he'll have to pay up on the child support." Rei paused. "Mako, did you keep your old transformation stick?"

"I did."

"Give it to Sayaka and tell her to say whatever feels right. My girls knew exactly what phrase to shout! It just came to them!" Rei bragged.

"I think I will give it to Sayaka. Do you think I should tell Toshiya about this?" Makoto asked.

"No," Rei answered. "If he sees anything, just say that they're trying on costumes for a school play or something. And if he sees them using their powers…I'll pray for him."

"I'll talk to Sayaka as soon as I get off work. Thanks for the heads-up, Rei. 'Bye!"

Rei sighed and decided to get a drink of water before calling Usagi, Minako, and Michiru. She shuffled into the kitchen, picked up a bottle of water from within the refrigerator, and took a sip as she thought about Yuuichirou the deadbeat dad. The two had such a good relationship that even Usagi and Mamoru, the definition of a good relationship, were taking notes. As soon as Rei announced she was pregnant with twins, though, Yuuichirou took that opportunity to disappear from her life. Reiko and Keiko have never met their father to this day.

She called Minako next because Minako was good at cheering people up. Minako had a secret cell phone number that she only gave to her closest friends because she didn't want calls from fans to clog up all of her phones and this was the number Rei dialed.

"Hello?" Minako asked after the second ring.

"Minako, hi, it's Rei. Guess what?" Rei asked, tracing the outline of the water bottle with her finger.

"What?" Minako asked.

"Ami was totally right! Reiko and Keiko have powers!"

"Oh my God! That is so cool! I should ask Natsumi if she has any."

"Sure, ask her. Give her your old transformation stick, too. I couldn't use mine, but Reiko and Keiko could. They knew exactly what to say, too, so I'm sure Natsumi will."

"I'm going to go get my stick now! Thanks for telling me, Rei!" Minako hung up and Rei imagined her running around her Juuban penthouse, searching for her stick beneath the chaos she called "organizing". Rei took another drink and called up Michiru.

"Hello?" Haruka answered.

"Haruka! It's Rei. I have some good news. You might want to call Michiru into the room."

"What? Is Yuuichirou back? Are you pregnant again? Are Reiko and Keiko top of their class?" Haruka asked in rapid-fire succession.

"No, no, and no, but it is about Reiko and Keiko," Rei said. "It pertains to what Ami was saying today."

"Hold on, let me go find her." Haruka put the phone down, but Rei could still hear her shout for Michiru, who was currently talking in raised voices to Aiko.

"You were skipping class? Aiko, you can't do this! Honey, if you keep skipping class you might not be able to get into Juuban High with the rest of your friends! Do you want to be separated from your friends?" Michiru shouted. She heard Haruka call for her and put her shouting on hold to get the phone.

"Here she is," Haruka told Rei before Michiru got the phone.

"Hello," Michiru said. "Aiko got in trouble today so I had to yell at her. What's up?"

"It's about our kids. Reiko and Keiko have powers!" Rei squealed, making Michiru gasp. "I gave them my old stick and they used it! They're senshi now!"

"Oh my God, you're kidding, aren't you?" Michiru asked.

"No, I'm not. I can see them burning stacks of hay outside." Rei craned her neck to look outside. "Yep, they're still doing it."

"So you think Aiko might have powers, too?" Michiru asked quietly.

"Powers of what?" Aiko asked in the background.

"The power to mind your own business, Aiko!" Haruka said. "Go downstairs and fix up a snack or something."

"Do you think Aiko's powers might be…" Michiru paused, presumably to see that Aiko was gone. "Double?"

"Why so?" Rei blurted out before she remembered why.

"Because of, you know, Seiya?" Michiru suggested. It was well-known among the group that Haruka and Michiru desperately wanted a child as soon as the others started to get pregnant, but there was just one problem that was quickly solved by having Seiya, well, contribute what he could (with Haruka's blessing, of course).

"They could be!" Rei exclaimed. "Ask Aiko if anything weird has been happening to her and give her your transformation stick. Reiko and Keiko knew what to do with mine right away. I couldn't use mine though. I guess the senshi days are over for me."

"I don't think I could fit into my senshi outfit anymore," Michiru joked. "But I'll do it. Thanks for the call, Rei."

Rei was almost done with her calls, so she called up Usagi.

"Hello?" Usagi asked into the phone, sounding slightly angry.

"Usagi, it's Rei. Guess what? Reiko and Keiko have powers! Just like Ami said today!" She heard Usagi drop something loud and metallic. "What was that?"

"A pan," Usagi answered casually. "IT HIT MY FOOT! OWWWW!" she cried out. "Oh, it hurts!"

"What's wrong, Mom?" Sakura asked in the background.

"Nothing, honey, I just made a dumb mistake," Usagi explained. "Ow," she said to Rei.

"Still clumsy after all these years," Rei joked. "Anyway, I gave the twins my stick and they knew just how to use it. I suggest you do the same with Sakura."

"Okay, Rei. I will." Usagi paused to say "ow" again. "I'll talk to you later."

"Put some ice on that foot!" Rei suggested as Usagi hung up.


	4. How it Manifests

Chapter Four: How It Manifests

A little note: Only the planets of Mars and beyond have moons, so for the two that don't (Mercury and Venus), they just get Mini versions of their planets.

Sakura thought Usagi was losing her mind, just as Reiko and Keiko did with Rei, when Usagi gave her a compact and told her she would know what to do with it. Assuming that it was a normal compact, Sakura opened it and was ready to powder her face when the compact started glowing white and turned itself into a stick that was half a foot long, white, and was topped by a gold orb with stars inside. Sakura blinked a few times, hoping that she was somehow hallucinating, but she wasn't. As she held the stick and examined the stars inside, she remembered feeling free as she flew down the hall. This feeling coursed through her brain and caused these words to come to her all of a sudden. She surrendered her tongue to them.

"_Comet Star Power, Make Up!_" she shouted, holding up the stick. It glowed gold and covered her in stars, one of which she reached out to touch but was disappointed by because her finger went right through it. The stars disappeared quickly, but Sakura was changed. She looked in her vanity mirror and gasped at her new appearance. She now wore a senshi uniform with a gold collar and bow, white gloves with gold cuffs, and a gold skirt with a white hem. There were gold knee-high boots on her feet, a tiara with a gold jewel on her forehead, and two gold star earrings dangling from her ears.

"What the?" she asked her reflection. "What's happened to me?" She argued with herself for a moment, whether or not to tell her mother, so she took off running through the house and found herself flying once more. "Moooooom! I'm flying! I look different! What's happened to me?" She stopped in the living room, where Usagi was watching TV with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Your powers have come out," Usagi explained. "Only use them for good, okay?" She giggled. "By the way, gold looks good on you."

"Um, thanks?" Sakura asked, still thoroughly confused.

Sayaka lay in her bed, fluffing up her short brown hair and thinking about the weird thing she did when walking home from school. She especially remembered the scorch mark left on the stones when she was done and wondered if someone would have to fix that wall now. The rain fell steadily outside her window and she turned to watch as a particularly bright flash of lightning crackled over Tokyo.

"Wow," she whispered. Makoto opened the door behind her, holding her transformation stick in one hand, and smiled.

"Sayaka, I have something for you," Makoto said gently, smiling.

"Is it cake?" Sayaka asked, her eyes bright as she turned to face her mom.

"No, it's not cake. Dad brought some of that home for you." Makoto pointed downstairs. "This is something better than cake."

"Two cakes?" Sayaka suggested.

"Very funny, Sayaka." Makoto closed the door to Sayaka's room and showed her the stick. "Do you know what this is?"

"Pretty?" Sayaka asked.

"Well, it is that," Makoto replied, nodding. "But it's so much more. This is the reason that I met Usagi and the others. This is the way to harness the powers that I already know you have." She touched Sayaka's shoulder. "You can't fool me, you know. I can see it in your eyes. You're magical, just like me." She handed over the stick. "You'll know what to say." Sayaka grabbed the stick, which caused it to change and become like Reiko, Keiko, and Sakura's sticks, except with a green crescent moon carved into the white orb. Makoto stood back and smiled warmly as Sayaka's eyes widened with the realization of what to say.

"_Ganymede Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Sayaka stood up from her bed, held her stick aloft, and was covered with magical lightning bolts that changed her into her senshi outfit. She stopped to look at herself in the mirror and flexed her strong arm muscles as she admired how the white gloves with green cuffs made her arms look. She touched the green jeweled tiara on her forehead, shook her head to make the green crescent moon earrings dance, and admired the green bow, green skirt with white hem, and green ankle-length boots. After she looked at her new outfit, she immediately turned to Makoto for advice. "Mom, what's all of this?"

"It's a manifestation of your magic. I was just around your age when I discovered my powers. I was just one of a group, though, that included Usagi, Ami, Rei, Minako, Haruka, and Michiru."

"Haruka wore this?" Sayaka asked, tugging on her skirt.

"Yes, she did. Hers was blue, though." Makoto smiled. "Oh, Sayaka, this makes me so happy. Now, press the white button in the middle of your bow and let's go eat some cake." Sayaka obeyed her mother and pressed the button, which caused her outfit to glow and be replaced by her school uniform.

"Cool," Sayaka said as she watched this de-transformation.

Natsumi sat on her bed, under her down comforter, doing her homework, when she suddenly felt hungry and wanted a snack. There was a box of chocolate cookies in her room, but it was all the way across her room and she didn't want to leave the comfort of her bed. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear before imagining a rope and creating another chain of orange hearts. It unfurled from her hand, stretched across her room, and wrapped itself around the box of cookies. Natsumi felt victorious and started to pull the chain back when the door suddenly opened and Minako entered, holding her transformation stick.

"Mom!" Natsumi exclaimed, making the chain disappear, which caused the box to fall to the floor. "I, um, I…"

"You are like me!" Minako exclaimed, grinning and doing a little victory dance as she kicked Natsumi's door closed. "Take this, Natsumi, and do what you feel is right with it."

"La la la la la la?" Natsumi sang into the stick, thinking it was a microphone. She took the stick, dreaming up a plan to sing one of Minako's most famous songs back to her, and was more than a little shocked when the stick glowed and changed into a stick much like the others, but topped with an orange carving of the Venus symbol in a white orb. Natsumi's tune began to change with Minako looking on happily. "_Mini Venus Power, Make Up!_" She was engulfed by the very same hearts she was able to control and came out feeling different, both inside and out.

"You look like how I did about 20 years ago!" Minako chirped as she saw her daughter, dressed in a nearly identical senshi outfit with a few changes (namely, Natsumi's skirt had a white hem and she had a white button in the middle of her bow). "Strike a cute pose!" Natsumi nodded, winking and flashing a victory sign.

Aiko was bored after finishing her homework and getting chewed out by Michiru about detention, so she decided to relax for a while in a bath. She thought of filling the bath up the normal way, by turning on the tap and waiting for the water to get warm, but she simply concentrated and pushed her hands forward, causing water to gush forth. While she was doing this, though, she accidentally left the door open and was surprised when Michiru walked in a moment later (but also glad that she was still fully clothed due to modesty).

"Hi, Aiko," Michiru said gently. "Do you forgive me for yelling at you?"

"I always do, Michiru," Aiko replied. While most mothers would find their children calling them by their first names to be strange or disrespectful, Haruka and Michiru taught Aiko to do such a thing to avoid any confusion. Aiko displayed a small smile.

"Good, because I have something for you." Michiru gave Aiko her transformation stick.

"Is this an antique?" Aiko queried. "Like, an old makeup container or something?" She took it in her hands to look at it closely and was shocked to see it glow and transform, the orb changing colors and style to incorporate an aqua-colored crescent moon. Michiru's eyes lit up with delight. Aiko blinked and knew what to say in the very next moment. "_Triton Satellite Power, Make Up!_" she called out as a wave of magical water washed over her and changed her clothes. Her accessories were all aqua-colored and made her blue eyes stand out even more. Michiru clapped when the transformation was complete while Aiko walked over to the mirror to examine herself.

"Haruka!" Michiru called. "Come see how beautiful Aiko looks as a senshi!"

A senshi, Ami thought as she dug around in her room for her transformation stick. Could Suzumi be one? I don't want to deny her powers if she has any. But I can't find my stick!

"Mom?" Suzumi, who felt able to talk to her mom about anything, asked meekly as she entered the room, holding the bottle of frozen water. Her blue eyeglasses slid down her nose and she quickly pushed them back as she watched her mother search for some mysterious object.

"Hold on, sweetie, I'm looking for something," Ami said, finally finding the stick buried away with work from Ami's doctorate course. "I found it!" She held it out to Suzumi. "So, what is it, honey?" She smiled until she saw the bottle of frozen water, which caused her to gasp in awe.

"I did this today," Suzumi explained, much like other, less magically-gifted children would show off their art class work.

"Then this will suit you." Ami gave the stick to Suzumi, who took it and watched it immediately transform, though the symbol stayed the same.

"_Mini Mercury Power, Make Up!_" Suzumi called out, and she was transformed by streams of ice flowing around her. She was now clad in a senshi outfit of blue, her favorite color, and the outfit made her feel empowered, something she rarely felt. Feeling this way, she smiled at Ami, who excused herself to go find the camera so she could take a picture.


	5. The Rumor Mill Hard At Work

Chapter Five: The Rumor Mill, Hard At Work

"Mm, I transformed too," Sakura said, showing off her transformation stick, as she, Suzumi, Sayaka, Natsumi, and Aiko ate lunch together in a quiet, more secluded part of the Juuban Junior High courtyard. Sayaka's lunches were famous, the stuff of legend, and all the girls liberally took what they wanted from her spread. The girls were, of course, deep in conversation about the new development in their lives. They proudly described their outfits to one another and talked of their powers, wondering if they would somehow change if they transformed. At one point, though, the conversation was derailed because of the arrival of an outsider, a friendly girl from Sakura and Suzumi's class named Ayaka Kominato.

"Hi, everyone!" Ayaka chirped, knowing that this group was usually never separated.

"Hey, Ayaka," Sakura said.

"Hi," Suzumi said. Sayaka, Natsumi, and Aiko simply waved because they were eating and didn't want to seem impolite. Ayaka's eyes darted from side to side before she leaned in closer and started to talk in a quiet voice.

"Did you hear about the angry spirit of the school?" Ayaka queried.

"What's that?" Sakura asked, already looking scared.

"It's a building where children go to learn," Ayaka replied jokingly, grinning brightly. "Oh, you mean the spirit?" The group nodded in unison. "It's a new thing. Apparently there is this angry spirit sulking around here, looking for people who are pure of heart."

"Pure of heart? What do you mean?" Aiko asked.

"I mean like, people who are still virgins…" Ayaka trailed off as the face of every girl in the group blanched. "I take it from the sudden terror that all of you still are." There was more unison nodding. "Me too. She took a girl today."

"The spirit took someone?" Natsumi asked.

"Yes. She took Chisato-chan," Ayaka replied. Natsumi audibly gasped.

"Oh my God, I was wondering why she wasn't in class today!" she exclaimed. "I thought she was just sick."

"No. She's gone." Ayaka's lip quivered. "I don't know where she was taken."

"Wait a minute," Suzumi said. "How do you know this, Ayaka? Did you see it happen?" Ayaka nodded vigorously. "Then tell us how it happened!"

"Chisato and I live in the same apartment complex, so we always commute to school together. We take the same train. Today, the trains were delayed due to maintenance, so we got to school late. Chisato thought that, if we snuck in to the school a different way, we wouldn't get in any trouble. So, she took me around a part of the building I've never seen before. Apparently, there are some older classrooms that aren't in use anymore," Ayaka explained.

"Asbestos," Suzumi muttered. "That's the reason they're not used anymore, there's too much asbestos for them to be safe."

"Right," Ayaka replied, nodding. "Well, Chisato and I were wandering around that part because we got lost. We were all alone and suddenly we heard this rustling noise. A woman with long black hair wearing little more than a bathing suit, fishnet tights, and big boots popped out of the bushes. She had red eyes."

"Red, like bloodshot?" Sayaka queried.

"No, red, like the colored part of the eyes were actually red instead of brown or blue or what have you," Ayaka replied, making the girls gasp. "She stared at us for a few minutes with those creepy red eyes. Then, she said something about the two of us being sufficient. Her hair grew long and snatched up Chisato, who of course was screaming bloody murder. I was too afraid, though, so I ran away." Ayaka paused to sigh. "I haven't told anyone else about this yet, but I might."

"Ayaka, you should!" Sakura insisted.

"What if people don't believe me?" Ayaka asked, feeling insecure.

"Then forget about them!" Aiko insisted.

"Yeah, I should go tell people," Ayaka said. "Thanks for listening and helping me out, guys." She stood up and ran off to spread the word.

"A freaky red-eyed woman stealing people away?" Sayaka asked. "Where would she be taking them?"

"I don't know, but we need to find out," Sakura said.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Aiko asked.

"I have no idea," Sakura confessed.

"Maybe we should wait to see if this spirit strikes again," Suzumi suggested. "I know that sounds terrible, but if it happens again, then it is a bit more believable. Who knows? Ayaka may have been making that up, but like I said, if it happens again, then it's more believable." She shrugged. "That's just how I feel."

"I need more proof, too," Natsumi said with a nod.

"Well, then, let's wait for more proof to arise," Sakura said firmly.

For the next few days, all was quiet on the Juuban Junior High front, leading Sakura and friends to believe that Ayaka's story was a fabrication, even though Chisato was still away. Other people were told this story, though, and soon enough it was _the_ thing to talk about, whether in class, between class, at lunch, or anywhere else. Unlike most rumors, in which some details get filtered out or edited as the story progresses down the grapevine, the details of this one remained constant—the spirit always had red eyes and long hair, always wore a skimpy outfit, and always preyed on the pure of heart. Some girls, fearing that they were potential targets, elected to unwisely remove the pure of heart distinction, mostly by finding a quick boyfriend to go all the way with. Sakura and friends, though, remained pure, though they were aware it made them a potential target.

Then, it happened again. A girl and a boy were taken this time, snatched up from within one of the abandoned, asbestos-infested classrooms together. Their friends testified that the abducted couple was just looking for somewhere private and forgot that those particular classrooms were always cited as the source of the malignant spirit. Three people taken was adequate proof for Suzumi, who started spending her class periods wondering how to find this spirit and take her down for good. She had such minimal information, though, that it drove her crazy.

The next day, another girl was taken. Most of the school was in a panic, while some people fervently refused to believe in what they dismissed as mere urban legend. Their opinion was supported by the fact that all four victims soon returned to class, looking wholly unscathed, though they were all acting quieter than usual. People decided that their sudden silence was due to emotional scarring from the whole abduction experienced and decided to just leave them alone until they felt ready to speak out. For a while, everything was back to normal at Juuban once more.

Suzumi, though, still had her doubts…


	6. Blasts From the Future

Chapter Six: Blasts from the Future

In this chapter, I touch on the characters I've left out so far: Chibiusa, Hotaru, and Setsuna, as well as the Sailor Quartet.

Natsumi's house, the largest house of anyone in her group of friends, was the source of a party the weekend after the four victims returned to class. It was a sort of reunion, as three special guests were coming for a short time to see the group again. The girls agonized over trying to guess who the three special guests could possibly be and tried asking their mothers both directly and indirectly, to no avail. The event was shrouded in mystery. Everyone showed up to Natsumi's that day: Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako (of course), Haruka, and Michiru were all there, as well as their children. Makoto and Sayaka were buzzing around the Aino house, setting out a lavish spread of food fit for royalty while the others sat around chatting amicably. Then, the doorbell rang, causing all the mothers to get excited and the children to get confused. Usagi literally danced over to answer the door.

"Hiiiii!" she chirped at the three visitors who were standing on the doorstep. On the left was a tall, elegant woman with long green hair, dressed in a black, form-fitting dress with a garnet-colored belt and matching shoes. On the right was a woman with cropped purple, almost black, hair, dressed in a purple cocktail dress. In the middle was a woman with pink hair done up in two ball-shaped buns with lots of excess hair dangling down on either side. She was dressed in a pink gown.

"Hello!" said the green-haired woman.

"She's pretty," Aiko whispered to Natsumi, who nodded fervently.

"Come in, come in," Usagi insisted to the three guests, who slipped out of their shoes and stepped inside. "Kids, listen up!" The children were already at rapt attention because of how beautiful the three visitors looked. "These are our good friends Setsuna Meiou, Hotaru Tomoe, and Usagi Tsukino!" She pointed to each visitor as she said their names and they would bow.

"Tsukino was Mom's maiden name!" Sakura told Suzumi, who immediately looked confused.

"It's great to see all of you again," Setsuna said cheerfully. "I haven't seen any of you kids since you were very, very young."

"I don't think I've ever seen them," Hotaru added helpfully.

"We've been busy," said the pink-haired Usagi.

"I have a quick question," Sakura said. "Why do you have the same name as my mom?"

"It's complicated," Hotaru said. "It involves us being from the 30th century and everything."

"I won't get into it, that'll ruin the fun. For today, why don't you all call me Chibiusa?" Chibiusa suggested. The kids nodded. "Great. Now, I'm hungry. Traveling back in time about 10 centuries can really get to you." Setsuna and Hotaru smiled.

"Have some of my famous cakes," Makoto offered, showing off the spread of food.

"Ah, that looks great," Hotaru remarked.

"Mm, I agree," Setsuna said. As soon as Hotaru, Setsuna, and Chibiusa were served, everyone else went to get their servings of food and sat down around the large table provided for this event by an overzealous Minako.

"So, Setsuna! How's your job?" Usagi asked.

"It's just a way to spend time," Setsuna joked, grinning.

"What is your job?" Suzumi queried.

"I guard the gates of time," Setsuna said with a smile.

"Cool," Reiko and Keiko said in unison.

"Who's guarding the gates now?" Sayaka asked.

"I can answer this one," Chibiusa cut in. "That would be Sailors Pallas, Ceres, Vesta, and Juno." She was met with blank stares from the kids. "They're like my Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus."

"Hotaru-san, are you from the 30th century, too?" Sakura asked.

"No, I'm just living in America now and haven't had a chance to come over until now," Hotaru explained. "I work for a big medical research place, studying diseases and their effects."

"Wow! That's really cool," Natsumi squealed. "Do you look at them under microscopes and stuff?"

"All the time," Hotaru replied casually.

The three visitors then took time to fawn over each and every child, praising their looks and abilities. It wasn't until after Aiko had been fawned over that anyone even mentioned the fact that the children were able to transform, and that was just a mention made in passing by Rei. This passing mention, though, led to every child transforming and showing off their abilities. Setsuna and Chibiusa transformed as well, just to show that they still could, while Hotaru reminisced about the good old days with the other mothers. Suzumi decided to ask Setsuna and Chibiusa for advice on what to do about the mysterious spirit at the school.

"Fight it," Chibiusa said. "Find it and fight it."

After the reunion was over and the three visitors left, the children retreated to Natsumi's room to plan out their method of finding this spirit. Natsumi drew a rough map of the school from memory and labeled all the buildings, even the asbestos one (which was labeled as such to distinguish it from the others).

"So, we know that the victims were all taken from near the asbestos building," Suzumi declared, pointing to the building. Natsumi drew a red X there. "If we know this, then why aren't we over there now, looking for the spirit?"

"Um, probably because we shouldn't be trespassing," Sayaka said.

"What about the victims? Do any of you know them personally?" Sakura asked.

"I just know Chisato from class. Let me tell you, she's usually a chatterbox. She and Ayaka are usually always talking away, even when they shouldn't," Natsumi began. "But now Chisato doesn't talk at all. She won't even answer questions! All she does is sit in the back and look dead."

"Look dead?" the others asked.

"Sure. Her eyes get all wide and she just sits in the same position for hours on end." Natsumi attempted to recreate this, but failed. "It's really creepy."

"Why would someone who's usually lively and talkative suddenly become a living cadaver?" Suzumi muttered, rubbing her chin.

"Maybe her soul's gone," Aiko suggested.

"Maybe you're right, Aiko! But where did it go?" Keiko asked.

"Ladies, I don't think we have much of a choice here. I think we'll need to go into the school sometime after hours, when the spirit least expects people to come. But how can we get in? I know the gates are locked at 5 o'clock and I'm talking going over there in the dark of night," Suzumi said.

"I can fly," Sakura offered.

"That won't help. You need a key to unlock the gate from the inside, anyway," Suzumi replied.

"I know that there's an extra set of keys in the principal's office," Aiko offered. "I've spent a lot of time in there. I could take the keys, get a copy of them made at the key place down the street, and have them back in their rightful place within an hour."

"Aiko, that's really dangerous," Reiko said.

"I've never seen anyone talk about, think about, or look at that extra set, though. I really don't think they'd notice it if they weren't there for an hour or so," Aiko replied. "Come on, guys. I'm really good at sneaking around. I know I can do this if you'll just let me."

"Aiko," Sakura said in an annoyed tone of voice, but nothing followed. "I guess if you really want to do it, you can. But what kind of punishments do you face if you get caught?"

"Ah, out-of-school suspension, probably." Aiko shrugged. "It'd be bad, but this situation needs investigation by powerful people like us."

"I'll lend you the money to get the keys made," Natsumi said, getting out her wallet. "Here." She gave Aiko a 500-yen bill.

"I know for a fact it costs less than 500 yen to get a key made," Aiko replied.

"Yes, but you might want to get two copies made. I'm with you." Natsumi smiled.

"I'm with you, too," Sakura said.

"Same here," Suzumi added.

"I'm on your side," Sayaka said.

"We're with you, too," Reiko and Keiko said.

"But you guys don't even go to our school," Aiko pointed out.

"I have a feeling that we'll be instrumental in this investigation anyway," Keiko said.

"Besides, I can detect when evil spirits are around," Reiko said, pointing to herself. "That'll give us an advantage right there."

"Where should we meet up? We can't all be loitering around the front of the school at night, it'll look weird," Natsumi said, though the truth was that she feared being assaulted by a wave of paparazzi.

"How about…we meet up at the coffeehouse nearby?" Suzumi asked.

"The Sweet Bean?" Reiko asked. "I love that place!"

"Yeah! We'll meet up there and have some coffee. That'll keep us pumped up for our mission. Great idea, Suzumi!" Sayaka said, cheerful at the prospect of coffee.

"So, what day and what time, everyone?" Sakura asked.

"How about tomorrow night at 9 PM?" Keiko suggested. "At The Sweet Bean, of course."

"It's a deal. Everyone, please remember to be there!" Sakura said cheerfully.


	7. Aiko's Mission

Chapter Seven: Aiko's Mission

The next day at lunch, Aiko witnessed a crowd forming around two girls who were preparing to fight each other. The secret was that Aiko paid each of them 1,000 yen to pretend to fight long enough to get the principal out of his office. The two girls started shouting insults at one another—really, they were the best of friends—and Aiko offered to go tell the principal. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her over to the principal's office, where she breathlessly reported that a fight was breaking out in the courtyard. The principal, a stout older man, rose from his chair and hustled off to break up the fight, leaving his office mercifully unattended.

Aiko shut her eyes and concentrated as she tried to remember where those extra keys could be. She even sat down in one of the chairs facing the principal's desk and concentrated extra hard, then the sun shone in through the window blinds and she saw a small glimmer out of the corner of her eye. Looking over, she saw the key to the school gate, shining as if to tell her "Here I am!"

"There you are," she said gently, as if she were playing hide-and-seek, snatching up the key and stuffing it into the pocket of her skirt before getting up and leaving the office. Now, she left the office area, acting very casual, and went outside, passing the courtyard where she could hear the principal scolding the fighters for not acting ladylike, a comment she had personally heard from him many a time. She walked past where her friends sat, inconspicuously eating lunch, and gave them a quick thumbs-up sign as she passed. She looked over her shoulder once, twice, three times, and took off running towards the open gates. When she reached the threshold, she leapt onto the sidewalk and ran until she couldn't see the school anymore, at which point she started walking. Juuban Hardware was just nearby, so she didn't need to run, which was good because she was now wheezing for air.

She stepped into the air-conditioned store and felt the cool air on her sweaty skin for a moment before seeking out the key-making area, which was unattended. Frustrated, she marched around the rest of the store, looking for someone who looked like they might be an employee. Down one of the aisles, a man with long black hair in a thin ponytail was trying to figure out the difference between different kinds of screwdrivers, but looked to Aiko like he was pricing them or something similar. She smiled and walked over to him.

"Excuse me," she said sweetly. "Could you possibly make a key for me? I need it done really, really quickly." She held up the key and looked exasperated. The man turned to her and his eyes widened in recognition before he spoke.

"N-no, sorry, I don't work here," he replied bashfully. "But you look familiar to me somehow."

"Um, that's great, but I really need a key made," Aiko said.

"I saw a guy with an orange apron over there. He might be able to help you," the man said, pointing.

"Thanks!" Aiko exclaimed, turning on her heel and running away.

"Seiya! Come on, how long does it take to look at screwdrivers?" a man with long brown hair, also done up in a thin ponytail, called from the end of the aisle. Seiya, however, was still watching as Aiko ran around the store. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Taiki, I just thought I recognized that person," Seiya explained.

"Eh, she's probably just a fan or something," Taiki replied.

Aiko found the orange apron man, who _was_ actually pricing different varieties of hammers using a price gun that made obnoxiously loud beeping noises.

"Excuse me," she began again. Beep. "Could you…" Beep. "Make me…" Beep. "A key?" Beep. "Please?" The beeping stopped.

"Sure!" the orange apron man said. "Right this way." He led Aiko to the key station, which required walking past Seiya and Taiki as they walked off towards another aisle.

"See? Look! Doesn't she look familiar?" Seiya insisted, pointing Aiko out to Taiki.

"No, not really," Taiki replied. "I think you might be losing it, Seiya."

The actual key-making process only took a few seconds, but Aiko was nervous the entire time, worried about getting back to school and replacing the key without being noticed. She had two copies made and, when it came time for payment, didn't want to bother with change, so she just flung the 500-yen bill at him, took her keys, and dashed off, literally bumping into Seiya on the way out.

"I swear she looks familiar!" he exclaimed as she ran back to school.

"Aiko!" Sayaka shouted as soon as Aiko arrived. "The principal went back to his office!"

"WHAT?" Aiko screamed. "I still have the original key!"

"I know, I know…" Sayaka made a little nervous noise. "What can we do?"

"I have an idea!" Natsumi exclaimed. "Sayaka! Why don't we pretend to fight each other? That'll make the principal leave his office again!"

"Good idea, Nacchi! High five!" Sayaka and Natsumi high-fived, exchanged a glance, and turned that high-five into some high-powered shoving and pushing. Aiko took this as her cue to run off towards the principal's office, where the two original fighters sat outside.

"There's another girl fight in the courtyard!" Aiko shouted in the principal's general direction. He sighed, got up from his chair, and walked off, muttering under his breath about today's youth the whole way. Aiko looked side-to-side and ducked inside, quickly replacing the original key where she found it before and leaving. "Thanks for doing that," she whispered to the original fighters as she walked off, exhaling and allowing her heart rate to calm down.

When Sayaka and Natsumi saw Aiko approach, they suddenly stopped fighting and started to apologize to one another. This satisfied the principal, who didn't want to take them to his office, too. He decided to just pretend this second fight had never happened and walked away slowly, whistling a tune.

"I got it," Aiko whispered. "I have two copies, actually."

"Hey, who's that guy by the gates?" Sayaka asked, pointing to the gates. Natsumi and Aiko both looked over their shoulders and saw Seiya walk over. "Ah, Aiko, looks like he's coming for you!"

"He's cute!" Natsumi squealed.

"You forgot your change," Seiya told Aiko, bringing out a few assorted bills and coins and giving them to Aiko.

"Um, thanks," Aiko said, pocketing the change.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Seiya asked Aiko.

"I don't know?" Aiko asked.

"What's your name?"

"Hey, pal, step away now!" Natsumi said, playfully shoving Seiya. "Enough with the inquisition!"

"Natsumi?" Seiya asked. "Damn, you've grown."

"Do you know him?" Sayaka asked, now thoroughly confused.

"Oh my God! Seiya, it's you, isn't it?" Natsumi asked, which met with a nod. "Wow, wow, wow. My mom's talked about you a lot. It's nice to meet you!"

"We've met before, but you were a baby," Seiya answered. "Your mom's group and my group performed together. The Three Lights and the Starlight Girls tour. Ask her about it sometime."

"Hi, I'm Sayaka Sakamoto," Sayaka said politely, bowing.

"I'm Aiko Kaiou-Tenou," Aiko said, also bowing.

"That's how I recognize you!" Seiya exclaimed.

"How so?" Aiko asked curiously.

"Aiko, you've probably never been told this before but…" Seiya paused. "I'm your father." All three girls started laughing maniacally. "What's funny?"

"Sorry, Seiya-san, but Aiko has all the parents she needs," Sayaka said defensively. "Haruka and Michiru are more than enough."

"Yes, that's probably true, but can Haruka and Michiru have a child together?" Seiya asked, making Sayaka immediately want to eat her words. "Exactly. Michiru entrusted my help on that front because we were friends and she said I have the best genes out of all of the Three Lights. Yaten and Taiki still haven't forgiven her for that." He laughed.

"I can't believe Michiru never told me this!" Aiko exclaimed.

"She was probably just waiting until you were 18, I guess. But knowledge is power. Well, I gotta go. See you around, daughter." Seiya smiled at Aiko, turned around, and walked through the gates again.

"Your dad is a pop idol," Natsumi said quietly.

"So? Your mom is a pop idol," Aiko pointed out.

"Point taken. Come on, I'm sure you're hungry from all that running and discovering who your dad is and all of that. I saved some food for you," Sayaka said, putting her arm around Aiko.


	8. Hecate Attacks!

Chapter Eight: Hecate Attacks!

In this chapter, Natsumi sings a song y'all might know to help calm herself down. It's "Moon Revenge" from the R movie. How does she know it? Let's just say her mom's singing group sang it. 

The next day, the Sailor Team were all so nervous in their classes that they could barely concentrate, let alone notice the fact that quite a few people were absent—more than usual for this time of year. Suzumi had trouble paying attention, which was a rarity indeed for her. Natsumi was scolded for being off-key in music class and her mother's singing voice was brought into the scolding, a comparison that was Natsumi's pet peeve. Sayaka struck out every time while playing softball during P.E. Aiko got in trouble for just gazing out of the window for an entire class period, thinking about the near future, as did Sakura. Even Reiko and Keiko were absentminded.

After school, each girl went home, did their homework, and rested up before heading out as if they were going back to school. The girls were still dressed in their school uniforms, their hands warming up from constantly touching the transformation sticks nestled deep in their skirt pockets, a gesture that reassured the girls their sticks were still there.

Suzumi was the first to arrive at The Sweet Bean because her apartment was the closest. She ordered a latte, sank into a comfortable leather couch, and sipped to try to quell her fears. The Hino twins arrived next, bought espressos, and sat down near Suzumi, though they didn't talk much, they just drank. Sayaka came in, bought a "frappe" (a mixture of ice, coffee, ice cream, and flavoring), and waved to the previous arrivals before setting up camp in a tall, bar-style stool. Aiko arrived, also bought a latte, and seated herself near the window. Sakura and Natsumi arrived last, just before 9 o'clock, each purchased frappes of different flavors, and made their way to the middle of where their friends sat.

Once the drinks were empty, Sakura spoke.

"Are we ready?" she asked, fear making her voice tremble. Her friends nodded in unison. "Aiko, do you have the key?"

"Both copies," Aiko replied.

"Great. Let's go." The group exited quietly and inconspicuously, rushing across the street and to the locked gates of Juuban Junior High as the crickets and cicadas sang their songs.

"_Yatto tadoritsuita ai nigirishime, chiisana nemuri ni yasuragu hito_," Natsumi sang quietly as Aiko got out one of the keys, looked around, and placed it in the padlock. She turned and the lock clicked, loosening up and opening.

"Success," Aiko whispered, gingerly pushing the gate open so it wouldn't creak loudly. The girls made their way in, just as if they were going to class.

"_Tojita mabuta ni sayonara kuchizukete, toki no hanazono ni anata okizari ni shita_," Natsumi continued. The girls walked through the grassy courtyard, noting just how different it looked at night. "_Ai wa yume no mama de wa tsuzukanai, musaboreba utsukushii shikabane soredemo_…"

"_Nozomu no nara oikakete kite ano kuchizuke wa akai tattoo, sadame no yokoku kizamu tattoo_," all the girls softly sang. "_Watashi ni nara hitome de wakaru kuchibiru-gata ni itamu tattoo, kakusenai wa anata…It's Moon Revenge, woo…_" After singing the first refrain, the girls suddenly heard a soft cackling noise coming from the asbestos building.

"Should we transform now?" Suzumi asked.

"Probably," Aiko replied. "But that'll bring the enemy over here."

"Good! That's what we want!" Sakura shouted, taking out her stick. "_Comet Star Power, Make Up!_" Aiko shrugged, knowing Sakura was right.

"_Triton Satellite Power, Make Up!_" she cried.

"_Phobos and Deimos Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Reiko and Keiko called out.

"_Ganymede Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Sayaka yelled.

"_Mini Venus Power, Make Up!_' Natsumi sang loudly.

"_Mini Mercury Power, Make Up!_" Suzumi shouted, something she rarely did.

As soon as the Sailor Team transformed, a silhouette appeared before them. Bright red eyes opened slowly within the silhouette before an arm reached out and elegantly tore away the silhouette, revealing a tall woman with dark skin and long black hair. She was wearing a different version of a senshi outfit. Hers was in two pieces, which allowed her toned belly to show. She had a red collar and button surrounded by a black bow, a long red bow flowing down the back of her legs, and a red skirt with a black hem. She also wore black high heels with straps.

"You have arrived," she said in a deep, husky voice. "Sailor Senshi."

"Who are you?" Sakura asked.

"Surprisingly enough, I am actually one of you. You may call me Hecate."

"Okay, Hecate, why are you here?" Sakura asked.

"So full of questions!" Hecate's eyes flashed. "I am here because Chaos desperately needs more strength. Let me tell you, these lovely, pure junior high students make great sources of energy for my dear Chaos to use."

"How many did you take?" Sakura asked, balling her hands into fists.

"Ten," Hecate answered. "I took more today, though, because I knew you would be coming for me and I needed more cronies." She clapped her hands twice and the ground started to bulge in ten different areas in front of her. These areas exploded and ten students, six girls and four boys, emerged, dressed in their normal uniforms but with empty-looking eyes. Hecate began to laugh again. "Get them, my cronies!" The Sailor Team braced themselves for the attack.

Sakura leapt in first, pointing at one of the cronies and watching as a sparkling beam of stars emerged from her finger, obliterating the selected crony. She did the same with another crony, reducing the total to 8 of them against 7 senshi. Aiko went next, thrusting both hands forth at another crony, which caused them to drown in a rush of water. Sayaka held her hands up as if she were going to dive, concentrating hard and blowing a collection of leaves off a nearby tree. They swirled around her and she sent them off with a devastating electrical charge, obliterating yet another crony. Suzumi reached out to touch two cronies. Loud crackling noises followed as they turned to ice. She then pushed them both lightly and watched them shatter. Natsumi grabbed a crony with her heart chain and tightened it until their head exploded. Finally, Reiko and Keiko stood next to one another. Reiko put her right hand forward, making a gun shape, and Keiko put her left hand forward, also making a gun shape. They shut their eyes and opened them again to watch a stream of fire obliterate the final two cronies.

"Impressive, very impressive," Hecate remarked, applauding. "Look at how well you work together. Are you the leader?" she asked, pointing at Sakura with the end of her hair.

"Uh, I guess. My mom was Sailor Moon," Sakura said shyly.

"I've heard many tales of Sailor Moon," Hecate said, nodding. "You're a natural born leader." She turned to the rest of the team. "Well, I hope you all are ready, because…" She snatched up Sakura with her hair and deposited her on the ground nearby. "She won't be available for this battle." Hecate pointed at Sakura, who screamed in fear and turned to stone. "If you defeat me, she comes back to life. If not, then your school has a brand-new gargoyle." Hecate cackled again.

"No! I won't allow it!" Aiko screamed, stepping forth and thrusting her hands forth again. The resulting stream of water got Hecate's hair wet, but didn't kill her.

"Please, you think that'll hurt me?" Hecate said tauntingly.

Reiko created a ball of fire in her hand and threw it at Hecate, but she countered by making a shield that caused the fireball to simply bounce off. Keiko tried again, with the same result.

"I'll do it!" Suzumi offered, running up to Hecate and attempting to touch her. Hecate, though, saw this coming and created an even larger shield around her whole body. When Suzumi touched it, she was thrown back with a large amount of force. She landed nearby with the wind knocked out of her.

"Suzumi!" the others cried.

"Don't turn your backs!" Natsumi warned. She created another chain of hearts, but Hecate grabbed the end aimed at her and forcefully took it from Natsumi, using it to bind her. Natsumi strained under the binding until she shut her eyes and concentrated on there not being a chain anymore. When she opened her eyes, she was free.

Sayaka jumped in next, specifically aiming a stream of sticks from the nearby tree at Hecate's forehead. The attack worked, and Hecate fell to the ground just as Suzumi rose to her feet.

"I have an idea," she cried. "Everyone, let's all attack at once. Maybe that will bring enough force to destroy Hecate once and for all!" The others nodded and assembled themselves beside Suzumi, readying their attacks. "On my count! One! Two! THREE!" With a ferocious war cry, the girls let their attacks fly. Suzumi produced sleet that stung Hecate's eyes and skin. Reiko and Keiko produced another stream of fire that charred her. Sayaka used rocks and pebbles to mar her. Natsumi's chain held her down so Aiko's torrent could hit her. During Suzumi's count, the girls all thought of Sakura coming back to life.

"You…you win," Hecate whispered before becoming a pile of ash that collected on the ground before completely disappearing. The girls now looked towards Sakura, whose stone surface began to crack like an egg. Within seconds, Sakura was fully released and gasping for breath.

"Sakura!" everyone cried, rushing to her side.

"Are you okay?" Aiko asked.

"I'm fine," Sakura said reassuringly, smiling widely.

"Sakura, it was so cool! We got all our attacks together and defeated Hecate," Keiko reported.

"You did? I'm sorry I missed it," Sakura said, still smiling.

"We were thinking about you," Sayaka confessed. "That helped us focus our attacks."

"Thank you, thank you all so much," Sakura said, a tear moving down her cheek. "You all care for me so much."

"We love you, Sakura!" Suzumi replied. "We're all going to be friends forever."

"How do you figure that?" Natsumi asked.

"Because our mothers were, too," Suzumi explained succinctly, pressing the button in the middle of her bow and de-transforming. The others quickly followed suit. "Now come on, let's all go home." The group walked until the area where they all split up to go to their respective homes, singing "Moon Revenge" together until they parted.


	9. Who is that handsome stranger?

Chapter Nine: Who is that handsome stranger?

In this chapter, I take a page out of Kurt Vonnegut's book and do some self-insertion. No, I'm not going to be a character! I'm just going to do a little transitioning. He does it in _Slaughter-House Five_, every so often mentioning how he was at the locations he writes about.

The day after Hecate's defeat, her victims returned to class, talkative and cheerful just like before she even existed. Chisato, as well as the other victims, showed no memory of Hecate at all, even when questioned by the Sailor Team as to what happened when she was taken. However, gentle reader, this particular arc of the story focuses not on the aftermath of Hecate's attack, or even the area of Juuban Junior High. This arc, my friends, focuses on T.A. Girls' School, Reiko, and Keiko.

"Reiko, I'm staying late today," Keiko told her sister in the cavernous main entrance of T.A. Girls' School, where girls in red and grey uniforms flitted about in little groups, chatting with one another about the school day that had just ended. "There's a Newspaper Club meeting. We're putting the issue together today!"

"Cool, have fun!" Reiko said to Keiko, waving to her as she disappeared into the crowd. Reiko smiled and pushed open the glass front doors, stepping out into the beautifully manicured courtyards. There were some cross statues lying around and even a statue of the Virgin Mary, but Reiko wasn't offended in the least by any of them. She knew she was a practicing Shintoist attending a Catholic school, but she just figured that she was getting a great education and being exposed to diverse beliefs in the process. A gentle spring breeze blew her long hair into her face and for a few moments, she struggled to push the hair back down.

When she got her hair back down, she saw someone standing at the school gates, wearing a different school's uniform. She moved closer and saw that it was a boy, not really that rare around T.A., where sometimes a girl's boyfriend might come over to walk her home. Reiko sighed wistfully, wishing she had a boyfriend to come wait for her at the gates. At T.A., she wasn't considered too terribly popular. There were girls who seemed to have everything they wanted—expensive clothes, makeup, whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. She knew one girl who had a car already, nestled in a parking garage somewhere in Chuo waiting for her to become legal. These girls grouped together and became a super-group that basically ruled the T.A. social scene.

Reiko, however, basically kept to herself. She could count her friends on her hands, whereas these spoiled rich girls had cell phone address books full of acquaintances. It was enough to make her feel inadequate at a time when the one thing girls need most is to feel empowered.

She passed through the gates, flicking her eyes at the boy to offer him a simple glance. When she did, she almost fell down in shock because he was gorgeous. He had amber-colored eyes, brown hair that was just unkempt and long enough to be fashionable, and wore his school uniform shirt untucked as a form of rebellion. Reiko blinked to snap out of the momentary trance she was in, smiled at him, and ran off, knowing very well that Hikawa Shrine was in the opposite direction but not caring. She ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore, at which time she saw the Sweet Bean Coffeehouse right ahead, as if it were calling out to her. Naturally, she answered the call.

She was slurping down a frappe, her biggest guilty pleasure (though she was distressed because she had to trade up her extra-small size uniform shirts for a small at the beginning of the spring term), and examining the state of her fingernails when the door to the coffeehouse opened, heralded by the tinkling of a small bell, and the boy from the gates walked in. Reiko nearly choked on her frappe. The boy scanned the coffeehouse with his amber eyes and, when they locked on to Reiko's violet ones, he started in her direction. She swallowed nervously and smoothed down her skirt as he arrived.

"Hi," he said in a suave, deep voice.

"Hi," Reiko answered meekly, twirling her red tie around her finger.

"What's your name?" the boy asked.

"Uh, Reiko Hino," Reiko said with a smile.

"That's a nice name. I'm Souji Maeda."

"What school do you go to? I'm sure you know which one I go to already," Reiko said, sheepishly pointing to the T.A. badge on her shirt.

"Oh, I go to Shiba Kouen High," Souji answered casually. Reiko tried to hold back her shock—a high school boy had followed her, a mere 8th grader, all the way to The Sweet Bean!

"That's cool," Reiko replied with a small smile.

"You look really good when you smile," Souji said, laying it on thick.

"Uh, thanks," Reiko said sheepishly, biting her straw.

"So, where are you going after this?" Souji asked.

"Home," Reiko answered.

"And where is that mysterious place?" Souji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hikawa Shrine," Reiko said, pointing in the general direction of the shrine.

"Wait a minute, you're a Shintoist and you go to a Catholic school?"

"That's right. I just see it as getting a varied education." Reiko shrugged. "All my friends go to Juuban, so I miss them, though. The T.A. girls can really get mean." She flicked some of her hair over her shoulder and took the final sip of her drink, looking at her watch before declaring "I really have to go now."

"Can I walk you home?" Souji offered.

"Um, uhh…" Reiko turned bright red, grabbed her bag, and bolted from The Sweet Bean, leaving her cup behind.

"I guess that means no," Souji lamented, staring at the abandoned frappe.


	10. Crash Course in Crushing!

Chapter Ten: Crash Course in Crushing!

Advertising: You guys absolutely must read the two Sailor Moon related works by **Moonlight Pheonix**. They're called _The Avatar and the Eternal Crystal Saga _and _Star Solaria: The Solar Crystal Chronicles_. These two come with the highest recommendation from me. As Arnold Schwarzenegger might say: Do it. DO IT NOW.

Reiko was mentally kicking herself when she got home for not accepting Souji's very polite offer. As she kicked her uniform skirt into her hamper and replaced it with pajama pants, thus creating the strange half-and-half outfit she wore around the house (prim and proper T.A. uniform shirt coupled with purple pajama pants featuring the likeness of Hello Kitty), she took a good look at herself in the antique mirror propped up on her desk because she and her mother were both too lazy to properly hang it.

_What were you thinking, Reiko?_ she thought. _Were you thinking at all? Or were you just lost in the moment? Just lost in those…gorgeous…amber…eyes? _She touched her lip and realized that she was actually drooling. _What's happened to me all of a sudden?_ Keiko was not yet home and Rei was busy doing her job, so Reiko picked up her cell phone, opened it up, and saw a slightly grainy picture, taken with the phone's built-in camera, of her with Natsumi and Sakura. A smile stretched across her lips and she dialed Natsumi's phone number.

"Hello, Reiko," Natsumi declared after barely one ring. She always liked to personally address her callers after checking her caller ID. "What's up?"

"Nacchi, I have a problem," Reiko confessed.

"What's wrong?" Natsumi asked in such a caring manner that it made Reiko smile again.

"Well, just as I was leaving school today, I saw a boy standing by the gates. I wished to myself that I had a boy to wait for me and then as I looked at that boy by the gates…" Reiko paused for dramatic effect. "Mm, he was hot like fire!"

"How appropriate," Natsumi remarked. "Do you want me to use my chain of hearts to encircle him and deliver him to your doorstep?"

"Could you do that?" Reiko asked meekly.

"Absolutely not!" Natsumi shouted into her phone. "No, Reiko, you have to do it yourself."

"But Nacchi, I've gone to a girls' school ever since preschool." She remembered the days of toddling around the sandbox at T.A.'s preschool with Keiko and some other girls that she grew away from as the years wore on. "I have no experience with boys at all!"

"That right there is the fundamental problem with girls' schools," Natsumi pointed out. "They may turn out future prime ministers and the like, but those future prime ministers are clueless when it comes to the male gender! I'm going to give you a crash course in crushing!"

"A crash course in what?" Reiko asked, slightly dazed.

"A crash course in crushing! I'll teach you everything you need to know. Come over to my domicile and we shall learn!"

"Domicile?" Reiko asked cattily.

"I learned that word in lit class today," Natsumi said defensively. "Come on over."

"Will do." Reiko hung up and pulled on her uniform skirt again instead of fully changing clothes because she didn't care how she looked. She scribbled a note to Rei that said she was going to Natsumi's and stuck it on the kitchen table before slipping into comfortable shoes and leaving the house. Natsumi's house was too far away to reach by walking, so Reiko dug out her fare card for the subway and headed for the nearest station, humming a tune as she walked.

Once she reached the station and descended the flight of stairs to the platform, she held the fare card up against a sensor attached to one of the transparent glass doors guarding the entrance to the station. It beeped and the door swept open to allow Reiko entry. As she entered, she threw a sidelong glance over her shoulder to watch the door shut again and swore she saw Souji standing there, searching his pockets for change to feed to the door. She let out a small shriek and ran, almost knocking over a little kid as she rushed for the platform that would lead her to Natsumi's. She waited nervously, peering into the tunnel to see if she could spot the signs of an oncoming train, her heart beating like a taiko drum. When the train finally pulled in and came to a stop, Reiko dithered about where to get on, fearing that Souji might follow. As the bells that signaled a train leaving began to chime, she leapt onto the one car where she knew she would be safe from Souji—the women only car.

The women only car was full of businesswomen coming home from their jobs, though there were a few scattered schoolgirls going home as well. Reiko felt instantly relieved to be on the women only car and sat down in a molded plastic seat for the relatively short trip, watching Tokyo whiz by at about 80 mph with a smile on her face.

She exited at the proper stop and walked the short distance to the Regency building, a shining white tower of expensive condominiums and penthouses. Natsumi didn't live on the very top floor—it was rumored that a very, very popular celebrity lived up there and none of the elevators went up there—but she lived two floors down and had an absolutely terrific view of Tokyo, no matter which window she went to. Reiko felt famous every time she did so much as enter the Regency, what with its marble-floored lobby and concierge desk and shining gold elevators.

Reiko was allowed to enter, as she was registered with the concierge desk on their "visitors allowed" list. There was a much longer list, too, the "persona non grata" list (PNG for short), of people who were _not_ allowed in the building. This included ravenous, perhaps even obsessive fans of the Starlight Girls that bothered Minako at home, including a particularly egregious case that happened when Minako was 25 and Natsumi was only 2 or 3. Minako and Natsumi didn't talk about it and the man involved was in jail anyway, so they decided to just let bygones be bygones.

Reiko pushed the up button on one of the elevators and stepped inside when the car came in. She pressed the 28 button inside the gold-accented car with the expensive Berber carpet and looked up to watch the different numbers light up as the elevator moved past them. To her surprise, nobody else got in the car all the way until the 28th floor, when she got out and went to the door marked 2803. She pressed the doorbell and saw Minako's eye peering through the peephole a few moments later.

"Oh, hi, Reiko!" she said cheerfully as she opened the door. "Come in!" Reiko obliged, slipping out of her shoes and depositing them in the foyer next to Minako's fashionable designer sneakers and Natsumi's school shoes. Right as she slipped out of her shoes, she felt suddenly constrained and saw that, indeed, Natsumi summoned a chain of hearts to catch her. "Ah, Natsumi's just practicing her powers. I told her to," Minako explained. "Good job, Natsumi! Now let go of her before she suffocates."

"Reiko! How did I do?" Natsumi, who was in Sailor Mini Venus form, asked as she let go of the chain. Reiko nodded and gave a thumbs-up. "Great! Now, come into my room." She pressed the button in the middle of her bow and her school uniform reappeared. Reiko nodded and followed Natsumi into her room, sitting down on her big, comfortable, purple-sheeted bed. "So, what do you know about this boy already?"

"Um, his name's Souji, he goes to Shiba Kouen High, and he's really, really good-looking," Reiko replied, nodding again and blushing brightly.

"High school boy, huh? Sometimes, it's good to go for older boys. They're more intelligent," Natsumi explained. "So, what do you want to do with this Souji boy?"

"Nacchi, that sounds dirty," Reiko said dismissively.

"I don't mean it that way. Pervert." Natsumi bristled.

"Well, I wouldn't mind going on a date with him," Reiko said wistfully.

"Then you must take action! In these modern times, it is permissible for a girl to make move number one." Natsumi nodded to let that sink in. "What you need to do, Reiko, is ask him for his phone number! Are you nervous? Unsure of what to say? Try it out on me."

"B-but Natsumi, you're a friend, it won't work the same way," Reiko protested.

"It's just practice, like we're in a play together." Natsumi grinned. "Okay. Let me get into character."

"Is that necessary?" Reiko asked.

"But of course." Natsumi shook herself, cleared her throat, and smoothed down her hair with her hands. "Ok. I'm Souji now," she said in a humorously deeper voice.

"Man, your boy voice is terrible," Reiko remarked. "Oh, right. The asking." She took out her cell phone to use as a prop. "Um, Souji-san, could I maybe get your phone number? Please?"

"Mm, I give that an 85," Natsumi reported, using her normal voice again. "You aren't sure of yourself, Reiko, and you need to be because boys love confident girls. The please was nice to hear, but you need to let go of the maybe part. Try it again."

"Okay." Reiko exhaled loudly. "Hey, Souji, can I have your phone number, please?" She smiled brightly the whole time, which made her violet eyes sparkle.

"Much better! I'm impressed. You're a good student. I give that performance a one-hundred and a gold star!" Natsumi said cheerfully, hugging Reiko. "Great job, Reiko. I know it's very, very scary to interact with boys sometimes, so I'm going to let you borrow a good-luck charm of mine."

"It's not the one I gave you, is it?" Reiko queried.

"No, that one's in my schoolbag," Natsumi said reassuringly, darting over to the area of her room dominated by her vanity mirror and chests of drawers. She bent over to have a better look at the things on her vanity before selecting a small heart-shaped bottle of perfume and gingerly picking it up. "This is a bottle of Mom's fragrance, Love Punch," she told Reiko. "It has notes of fruit and all sorts of good stuff. Smell." She handed the Love Punch over to Reiko, who opened the top and sniffed.

"Mm. That's nice." Reiko smiled.

"And here's the best cosmetic-related advice Mom ever gave me. Don't spray the perfume on your neck or wrists. Spray it in your hair. It stays there longer and is more subtle that way, not like a noxious cloud of fragrance." Reiko nodded and obeyed Natsumi's advice, spraying the Love Punch on her crown.

"Thanks a bunch, Natsumi." Reiko smiled even larger.

"You're welcome. Hey! If it goes well, tell me, okay? And even if it doesn't go well, tell me anyway," Natsumi said cheerfully.

"I'll do it!" Reiko declared, taking a tight hold of the Love Punch. "Talk to you later, Natsumi!"

"Bye bye!" Natsumi waved to Reiko as she left her room and walked into the living room.

"Oh, is that Love Punch?" Minako asked.

"Yes, it is, Minako-san," Reiko said proudly.

"Cool." Minako went back to reading a magazine. Reiko slipped into her shoes again and left the penthouse, already feeling more empowered and glamorous than when she entered. Her heart was soaring like a bird and she had nothing but good feelings about what was ahead of her.


	11. A Joyful Heart and A Cruel Kiss

Chapter Eleven: A Joyful Heart and A Cruel Kiss

Before the end of school the next day, Reiko slipped out of class and went to the bathroom. Inside, she opened her schoolbag and took out a small purple makeup bag, balancing it on the rim of the sink. She unzipped it, removed a tube of sparkling pink lip gloss, a tube of mascara that promised "Ultra Lashes," and the Love Punch bottle, and then placed her bounty on the top of the sink, next to the faucet. First, she put a good coating of mascara on each set of lashes and marveled at how well the tube kept its promise of Ultra Lashes. Next came the lip gloss, which she effortlessly swept over her lips. When she was done, she smacked them together to ensure full coverage. Finally, she took Natsumi's advice again and sprayed the Love Punch on her crown twice for good luck.

"Hino-san," asked the girl at the sink next to her, Chizuru Fuchizaki, who was a very sweet classmate of Reiko's. "What's with all the makeup?"

"Oh, nothing. I just might be getting a boy's number today." Reiko beamed.

"Ah, Hino-san, that's great!" Chizuru said cheerfully, clapping her hands. "Good luck to you!"

"Thanks!" Reiko bowed before putting her goodies back in her makeup bag and shoving that back in her schoolbag. She took her schoolbag and started swinging it as she left the bathroom and went back to class, where the minutes couldn't go by fast enough. Plans were already made with Keiko, who would hang back in the courtyard for a few minutes while Reiko got Souji's number. If he were to refuse Reiko's polite query, she would give a signal to Keiko, who would run in and rescue her sister, perhaps while scolding Souji for being a fool.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the final bell rang and Reiko dashed out of the school in the blink of an eye. Keiko followed, a few moments later, and found a good bench in the courtyard to sit upon. Reiko gave Keiko a thumbs-up and walked happily towards the gates, humming a happy tune.

"There you are, shy one," Souji said, jumping out from beyond Reiko's line of sight. Predictably, she screamed and involuntarily leapt into the air. This made Souji laugh like a hyena.

"You scared me!" Reiko exclaimed, her face bright red from both the surprise and the sight of Souji.

"Sorry about that, shy one." Souji smiled. "Would you like to go out with me?"

"Right now?" Reiko asked.

"Right now," Souji repeated with a nod.

"Um…" Reiko turned to Keiko, who smiled. "Sure!" she exclaimed, turning back to Souji.

"Who's that?" Souji asked, pointing to Keiko.

"That's my twin sister Keiko," Reiko said proudly.

"Cool. Come on, let's go!" Souji grabbed Reiko's arm and took off running. Reiko shrieked at first, but then her shrieks turned to laughs.

_I think I like this guy!_ she thought to herself, smiling.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

"To a secret place," Souji replied.

"Mysterious!" Reiko exclaimed.

The secret place turned out to be The Sweet Bean, a decision that completely mystified Reiko until Souji explained that he wanted to finish what they had started the day before. Reiko thought that was a cute touch. She ordered yet another frappe, which Souji insisted on paying for, and they settled down at a table together. Once Reiko had some caffeine flowing through her system, she started to chat at a blistering pace about herself, her school, her sister, and her friends. She was careful, of course, not to reveal anything about being Sailor Phobos, but aside from that, she said pretty much everything she could think of to say. Reiko dominated the conversations, with Souji saying very little except to respond to questions or provide the correct emotional response to something, such as a funny or a gross story.

"Ah!" Reiko exclaimed, looking at her watch. "I really have to get home. I have homework to do."

"Where do you live?" Souji queried.

"Ahh, you won't believe me if I say it, even though it's true," Reiko said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Try me," Souji said, shrugging.

"I live at the Hikawa Shrine."

"I don't know where that is," Souji replied, shaking his head.

"It's nearby." Reiko paused. "Um, can I have your phone number?"

"Sure, but only if I can have yours."

"It's a deal." The two rattled off their phone numbers to one another. "Thanks, Souji. I'll call you sometime."

"Cool." Souji smiled, Reiko smiled back, and then she got up and gingerly walked away, coquettishly blowing a kiss over her shoulder before walking right into the closed door. She flashed a nervous "dignity at all times" smile and properly opened the door, but punished herself for her embarrassing moment by running away. Souji sat at the table for a few moments afterward, committing everything he learned about Reiko to memory. Then, he threw away his drink, left the shop, and ducked into a nearby alleyway. Concentrating deeply, he became completely invisible and gained the ability of flight, which he used to glide smoothly down the sidewalk, flying a few feet above Reiko, who was unaware that he was around because she was calling Natsumi to tell her that her advice was successfully used.

_Don't think that I can't tell you're a Sailor Senshi, Reiko_, he thought to himself. _Your aura betrays you and gives your secret away. Hecate, I will avenge you. I promise you this. Did you hear me, Hecate? Astarte promises to avenge you. _

Reiko went to sleep early that night, leaving her window partly open so she could feel the breeze during the night. She dreamt, as girls in love naturally do, of the object of her affection. She did not, however, feel the new presence in her room as the invisible Souji entered through her open window and verified that she was truly asleep before settling down on her floor and becoming visible again. When Souji became visible again, he snapped his fingers and his persona melted away, replacing itself with the persona of a woman with long, curly red hair, tanned skin, and pink eyes. She was clad in a senshi uniform much like Hecate's, except with red and pink accents instead of black and red.

"Innocent Reiko-chan's first love," this woman began in a sultry voice as she hovered over the sleeping Reiko. "How cute. It'll bring Chaos-sama even more power." She leaned in and kissed Reiko on the forehead, a kiss that left a burning red mark for a few seconds before sinking into the skin. When she was satisfied that the red mark was gone, she snapped her fingers and became Souji again. To seal the spell, he caressed Reiko's face and touched where the red mark had been before shutting his eyes and turning invisible. He flew out of Reiko's room, leaving her alone to sleep, perchance to dream.


	12. Dreaming Maidens

Chapter Twelve: Dreaming Maidens

It's really hard to write these romance-related chapters. I have problems writing romance scenes for some odd reason. So forgive me if these chapters suck!

After unknowingly receiving the cursed kiss, Reiko spent nearly every waking moment thinking about or talking about Souji. Even when she was sitting in class, her thoughts were purely on him. The people around her were becoming increasingly sicker of hearing about nothing but some boy, so they started avoiding her. Even sweet little Chizuru, who would never say a mean word about anyone, started to call Reiko boy-crazy behind her back. The person most affected by this sudden change in Reiko, though, was Keiko, who was forced to listen to Souji-talk during the walks to and from school, plus during time at home. Keiko was reaching the end of her rope, but keeping it to herself because she loved Reiko in a way that Souji couldn't dream of providing—the bond between twin sisters that can never be broken.

Reiko started spending inordinate amounts of time with Souji, usually at his house where his parents never seemed to be around. He had video games that they would play together and he would help her with her homework because she was usually too busy daydreaming during class to absorb the new concepts. They would laze away watching TV or movies, though sometimes they would go out and explore a different area of Tokyo by throwing a dart at a map of the subway system to find out where they should go. Reiko was usually coming home around 7, 8, or 9 PM, hungry for dinner and ready to talk about her day. As mentioned before, Keiko was growing more frustrated with her sister's actions by the day, so she would complain to Rei about the situation. Rei, however, saw the relationship as cute and allowed Reiko to be with Souji every day because she saw no decrease in her grades.

The cursed kiss was affecting Reiko in that it took her lively, youthful energy and diverted it all to Souji, in heart, mind, and body. Souji was teaching her things she had never heard of before, due to her experience (or, actually, inexperience) at everything related to romantic relationships. Her pure heart, however, began to fight back against the influence of the cursed kiss so that she could no longer focus solely on Souji and making him happy, no matter what. She especially found herself no longer able to do whatever Souji wanted her to do, which upset him deeply.

Keiko didn't have the heart to tell Reiko that the reason her pure heart was fighting back was because Keiko started praying, at least half an hour every day, for Reiko to snap out of this trance she was in.

"I feel bad for not telling her," Keiko lamented to Sayaka, who came over at her request because she was feeling lonely as usual. "But this obsession with Souji makes my blood boil! Reiko deserves better than that stupid Souji!" She sighed and popped a potato chip into her mouth.

"Tell me about it. The only time I ever saw someone go crazier for a boy was when Natsumi fell for that boy last year. What's his name? I forgot it." Sayaka shrugged and ate another potato chip.

"So did I." Keiko sighed. "Not only have I been praying for her every day, but I've been having bad visions every so often."

"Bad visions? Did you tell your mom about them?" Sayaka demanded.

"N-no. She's on Reiko's side. Sayaka, this Souji boy is turning the members of the Hino house against each other, but I am outnumbered," Keiko said sadly.

"Tell me about the visions," Sayaka commanded.

"I will. I keep seeing pink eyes."

"Pink eyes? Like, the colored part of the eyes is pink, or someone who is sick with pink eye?" Sayaka asked, pointing to her eyes whenever she said 'eye' or 'eyes'.

"The colored part is pink," Keiko said with a slight nod.

"So, do you see anything other than pink eyes?" Sayaka asked.

"Sometimes. When Reiko comes home at night and I see her, I occasionally see a mark shaped like a pair of lips on her forehead. But maybe I'm just going crazy." Keiko shrugged.

"Keiko, this is bad! You need to tell your mom. You may even need to tell Reiko!"

"No! I can't tell Reiko! She'll never talk to me again!" Keiko screamed. "I don't want to lose that!" Pushed over the edge, Keiko began to cry. Sayaka rubbed her back while she cried, allowing her to keep crying until she was ready to stop.

"Tell you what. If you don't feel like you can tell your mom, why don't you tell my mom? She's receptive and maybe she'll relay the information along to the particular channels that need to hear it," Sayaka suggested. "Plus, you can have a free piece of cake."

"You know I can't resist the prospect cake," Keiko said, sniveling. "Take me to the bakery."

One short train ride later, Keiko's nose was full of the pleasant smells at Sakamoto Bakery. Sayaka was in the back, finding a suitable piece of cake for Keiko to eat, while Keiko sat at a secluded table with Makoto. Makoto was sipping a cup of mango tea and nibbling on a piece of strawberry shortcake when Sayaka brought a piece of Chocolate Death cake for Keiko to eat.

"Oh, my favorite!" Keiko chirped, happily digging in. Sayaka pulled up a chair.

"So, Sayaka said you wanted to talk to me about something," Makoto began. "Speak your mind, Keiko. Nothing is taboo." Keiko always liked talking to Makoto—she never let her emotions get the best of her and never took sides in any argument. Sayaka always said that Makoto having to grow up alone humbled her.

"Well, Reiko has been seeing this boy Souji lately and she's spending all her time with him," Keiko began. "She just comes home at night after a day spent with him, eats dinner, and goes into her room to talk to him on the phone."

"Ah, she's gone boy-crazy, then?" Makoto suggested, sipping her tea.

"You could say," Keiko replied, nodding fervently because her real answer was yes but she didn't want to seem impolite. "But I've been getting these visions lately and they concern her."

"They're very important," Sayaka cut in.

"I get visions of this mark on her forehead that drains her energy and of these freaky pink eyes, but I don't know if I feel like I can tell Reiko about this because I think she'll get mad at me if I do." Keiko munched away on her cake. "This is great, Sayarin."

"Thanks, Kechan," Sayaka replied, beaming.

"Pink eyes? Energy-draining marks?" Makoto repeated to make sure she understood.

"Yes," Keiko said, nodding.

"It sounds evil to me," Makoto said. "That's just my opinion."

"I think so, too!" Keiko exclaimed. "Someone who agrees with me!"

"I think I might tell Rei about this myself. Please don't lose sleep over this or anything, Keiko. This, too, shall pass."

Keiko lay in bed that night, dreaming innocently, when she saw those pink eyes again. In her dream, she was in an area of naught but purple clouds, out of which the pink eyes materialized, attached to Astarte's senshi-outfit-clad body.

"Who are you?" Dream-Keiko demanded.

"You will find out soon enough," Astarte answered.

"That's not an answer!" Dream-Keiko roared. "Do you have something to do with my sister Reiko?"

"Reiko," Astarte said, enunciating each syllable slowly. "My human form has, how shall I put it? He has _thoroughly explored_ Reiko and all she has to offer." She laughed wildly.

"What?" Dream-Keiko asked, shocked. "Reiko…has?"

"I will let you figure that out for yourself, naïve one," Astarte declared. "However, tomorrow it shall not matter! Tomorrow, the pot will bubble over and I shall have no more use for Reiko. I shall be strong enough to arise!" She swept her hand over herself with mysteriously elegant flair. Dream-Keiko remained silent, hoping to learn more. "What are you doing here? It's time for you to wake up, dreaming one." Astarte grinned maliciously and gleefully shoved Dream-Keiko, which caused her to wake up.

Keiko shot up in her bed, panting for air and sweating, but able to remember every single detail of her dream. She wrote them all down on a nearby piece of paper in case her memory failed her and attempted to go back to sleep, a nigh-impossible task at the time. Resigning to defeat, she stumbled out of her room and down the darkened hallway to the living room, where she could watch some mindless TV and hope to fall asleep again. However, the news that the mysterious pink-eyed woman delivered to her regarding Reiko made her uneasy and caused her to cry into a pillow, lamenting the loss of Reiko's innocence.


	13. Twin versus Twin

Chapter Thirteen: Twin versus Twin

Keiko awoke the next morning on the living room couch with her head indented deeply in the throw pillow and feeling groggy as usual. On TV, the ever-cheerful weather woman was telling the audience that it would be a delightful day in all of Tokyo, all day long. However, Keiko was dreading this delightful day more than ever. It was a Saturday, which was usually her favorite day due to the sheer freedom that came along with it, but she sharply remembered the words of the pink-eyed woman, who said she would be strong enough to arise today, and her heart sank like a stone.

She arose, throwing her blanket off and staggering to the kitchen, searching for something to eat. She found a container of waffle mix and decided to make some waffles. Presently, Reiko entered, already made up, fully dressed, and ready to go to Souji's, but she seemed glum as she sat down at the table.

"Good morning," Keiko said sweetly as she stirred the waffle mix in a bowl. "Would you like some waffles?"

"I would." Reiko nodded slightly, sighing loudly.

"What's wrong, Reiko?" Keiko asked, worried. From her point of view, she couldn't see her sister's eyes, which were bloodshot from crying.

"Souji and I had a fight last night," Reiko began right as Rei came in, sniffing the waffle mix and smiling.

"Good morning!" Rei sang.

"Hi, Mom. I'm making waffles," Keiko explained.

"Great. I'm hungry." Rei looked at Reiko and immediately sensed something was wrong. "What's eating you, Reiko?" she queried, sitting down at the table.

"Souji and I had a fight last night," Reiko repeated. "He says that I've changed or something, that I'm not making him happy anymore." She sniveled. "But I do whatever he wants me to, it's not fair!"

_Neither is the fact that his mere presence is tearing us apart,_ Keiko thought as she vigorously stirred the thickening mixture.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry," Rei said sympathetically.

"What should I do, Mom?" Reiko asked, her voice delicately walking the line between normal and hysterical.

"Break up with him," Keiko muttered gravely.

"What?" Reiko asked, cupping her hand to her ear.

"Uhh, nothing, just going to turn the waffle iron on!" Keiko lied cheerfully, plugging in the waffle iron.

"Keiko, you're a bad liar," Rei declared. "I heard every word. However, that might just be a good idea."

"What might be?" Reiko demanded loudly.

"Keiko said you should consider breaking up with him," Rei said.

"Mom!" Keiko exclaimed, trying to stop Rei, but it was too late.

"Keiko, you're just jealous," Reiko snapped. "You're just jealous because no boy has ever paid any attention to you, so you're trying to sabotage the one thing that's making me happy!" Keiko was so deeply offended by this comment that she slammed the mixing bowl onto the counter, producing a loud thump noise. She then stomped over to her sister and got down to her eye level by kneeling.

"Jealous, am I?" Keiko asked in a hateful tone. "How can I be jealous? He doesn't really care about you. He's just taking your energy away so this creepy woman with red hair and pink eyes can come back!" This statement sounded so absurd that Reiko started to laugh. "It's not funny. I dreamt about it last night." Keiko ran to her room and retrieved the piece of paper she wrote on, shoving it under Reiko's nose. "Read it and weep."

"Keiko, this is the dumbest thing I've ever read," Reiko replied, throwing the paper on the floor.

"Reiko, don't throw things," Rei snapped.

"But it's all true!" Keiko protested. "I saw it all. By the way, the woman in the dream told me that her human form had '_thoroughly explored_' you. What sort of meaning should I derive from that?" She was pressing her sister hard for answers, utilizing the journalistic technique she was best at. "Should I, perhaps, assume that she meant you've had…" She couldn't bring herself to say the word at first, but she shut her eyes and thought peaceful thoughts, which allowed her to spit the next word out. "Sex with him?"

"What?" Rei roared. "Reiko! Have you?" Reiko remained tight-lipped. "If you have, young lady, you are in so much trouble it isn't even funny! Reiko! That could be dangerous for you. Didn't you pay attention in health class? You could be pregnant! I'm not raising any babies!"

"Mom," Reiko pleaded, her voice cracking. "He's always safe."

"Oh no!" Rei wailed. "Reiko! Don't you dare go out of this house today or you'll be grounded for so long that your real friends will all forget who you are!"

"Mom!" Reiko pleaded, louder this time, at which point an unusual thing happened that both Rei and Keiko observed with their own eyes. The mark of the kiss on Reiko's forehead reappeared, as vibrant as the day it was created, which caused Rei and Keiko's eyes to widen in disbelief. As Reiko looked confused, wondering what they were looking at, the kiss began to pulsate, causing Reiko an inordinate amount of pain. The kiss stopped pulsating, making Reiko slump over onto the table for a few moments. When she sat back up, her eyes were empty.

"I must go," Reiko declared.

"Mom, this isn't normal," Keiko whispered to Rei, who immediately nodded. "I'm going to follow her but I'll try to be inconspicuous."

"Take your transformation stick," Rei replied. "You may find it useful." Keiko nodded and walked to her room, where she immediately threw on an outfit and found the transformation stick resting on her desk, near a textbook. She snatched up the stick and shoved it in her pocket, slipped into a pair of sandals, and silently crept up to her doorway, watching Reiko put her shoes on in the foyer and step outside. Rei watched her go, looked at a clock, and allowed Keiko to leave a minute later.

Reiko knew the way to Souji's house like she knew the back of her hand. Keiko wandered behind her, walking slowly so she wouldn't catch up to her sister and be exposed. She hid outside the house when Reiko entered, making her way to a window where she could watch the actions going on inside.

Reiko entered, approaching Souji, who was casually reading a newspaper as if he were waiting at a bus stop instead of expecting company. With a pang, Keiko noted that he was, indeed, very attractive, and then she tried to concentrate on reading their lips. Souji put the paper down when he heard her enter and stood up, walking over to her and immediately embracing her. While he did so, Keiko noticed her sister growing unnaturally wan.

"Reiko!" Keiko exclaimed, clasping her hand against her mouth as Reiko's eyes fluttered before shutting and she slumped in Souji's arms. He smiled, placed her on the floor, and snapped his fingers, transforming into Astarte. Keiko's eyes widened with recognition as soon as he transformed and her heart pounded in fear of what might happen next.

"Wake up now, little child," Astarte said to Reiko, touching her forehead. The kiss lit up again and Reiko immediately stood up, eyes still empty. "Look out of the window over there." She pointed to the window where Keiko stood and Reiko obediently looked. "Now wave to your sister." Reiko did so. "For the last time." Astarte licked her lips. Keiko gasped and took out the transformation stick. It felt odd to her to be transforming alone.

"_Deimos Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Keiko cried, holding the stick up to the sky. She was encircled by flame and emerged a moment later as Sailor Deimos. Not wanting to run around to the front door for fear that she would be seen, she simply blasted the window open with a stream of fire and leapt inside.

"Ah, we meet again, naïve one. How are you feeling?" Astarte asked. Keiko ignored this question.

"Reiko!" she cried, holding out the transformation stick. "Take this and transform!" She threw the stick, which Reiko caught, making Keiko feel hopeful.

"_Phobos Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Reiko shouted, going through the same transformation and ending as Sailor Phobos.

"Beautiful, beautiful!" Astarte cheered, applauding. "Now…" She touched Reiko's forehead and the kiss shone through her jeweled tiara. "Kill her." She pointed one finely manicured finger at Keiko.

"No!" Keiko shouted defiantly, her hand cutting through the air and shooting flame at Astarte, who dodged at the last second so Reiko bore the brunt of the attack. "Oh no! REIKO!" she screamed as Reiko collapsed, a bloodcurdling scream that attracted the attention of Aiko and Suzumi, who happened to be walking by on their way to Shibuya for some shopping.

"That sounds like Keiko," Aiko observed.

"Where?" Suzumi asked. Aiko concentrated and pointed to the correct house. "Well, then, let's go!" The two girls ran to the house and threw open the unlocked door. As soon as they saw that the Hino twins had transformed, they followed suit.

"_Mini Mercury Power, Make Up!_"

"_Triton Satellite Power, Make Up!_"

"Aiko, Suzumi," Keiko said weakly. "I hurt Reiko." She pointed to Reiko, who was still writhing from the attack.

"Look out!" Suzumi cried as Astarte embraced herself for a moment, glowing with black energy, before opening her arms and sending the energy shooting forth. Aiko leapt in front of the Hino twins and made a wall of water that Suzumi froze into a wall of ice. It handily protected the quartet from Astarte's attack. Astarte screamed in frustration and brought forth another shot of energy, which also crackled against the icy wall. Aiko sat down next to Reiko and looked her over.

"Her injuries aren't bad," Aiko reported, smiling at Reiko. "Hi, Reiko. I know you can hear me, even though your eyes make you look dead. I'm going to heal you now."

"How will you do that?" Keiko asked.

"Using a technique that I discovered a few days ago after a particularly nasty fight at school left me all scraped," Aiko replied, smiling. "See my knees? They were all scraped and bloody, but then I did this and they were okay again. Suzumi, Keiko, watch my back." The two nodded and turned to the ice wall, which was still standing but was beginning to melt. Aiko turned back to Reiko, concentrated deeply, and clapped her hands together, which caused them to glow slightly. She let her hands hover over the injured areas on Reiko's body and they were instantaneously healed. Aiko thought she was done until she saw the kiss on Reiko's forehead, which she decided to heal the same way. It took a little longer, but with enough power the kiss completely disappeared and Reiko's eyes looked lively again.

"Uuugh, what happened?" Reiko asked groggily.

"It doesn't matter, as long as you're okay now. Now, stand up and help us fight," Aiko said, offering her hand to Reiko and helping her stand up.

"Aiko, this wall can't hold much longer!" Suzumi cried. "What can we do?"

"Let's all attack her at once!" Reiko suggested.

"Reiko!" Keiko said happily. "You're back!"

"Yes I am, and I'm ready to fight!" Reiko declared, flashing a victory sign.

"Get ready," Suzumi said as the wall began to crack. The quartet got ready for the wall to break, which it eventually did, but some of the shards of ice hit Astarte and a sizzling noise could be heard when they did so.

"Is she made of fire or something?" Reiko asked sarcastically.

"Maybe!" Keiko exclaimed. "Suzumi, Aiko, you two attack her this time and we'll see what happens."

"Gotcha," Aiko replied.

"No problem," Suzumi replied. "Aiko, you go first."

"Gladly." Aiko braced herself, allowing her power to build up, before sending off a devastating torrent of water that hit Astarte directly. She let out a loud howl as the water hit her. Then, the sizzling sound filled the air again and the quartet watched, partly in horror and partly in fascination, as Astarte decomposed, becoming a pile of ash that pooled on the floor before disintegrating.

"Wow," Suzumi whispered in awe after Astarte's remains disappeared.

"Come on, Rechan, let's go home," Keiko said as she pushed the button in the middle of her bow and de-transformed. Reiko nodded and de-transformed. "Hey, Aiko, Suzumi? Thanks for helping me out," Keiko said, bowing to Aiko and Suzumi before taking Reiko and leaving the area.


	14. Break Time!

Chapter Fourteen: Break Time!

I actually looked up Shibuya 109's website and wrote down the names of a lot of their stores so that, when the girls go shopping there, it'll seem more realistic. Now, I don't know what the exact inventories of the stores are (the site just says the category of each store—most are "lady's wear"—and gives a little picture of the store), so I'm making all that up. Also, Ayumi Hamasaki really does live in Azabu. And the three sizes mentioned as being small (3, 5, and 7) are like American 0, 2, and 4.

At schools all over Tokyo, it was now zero hour. In a matter of mere minutes, the final bell would ring and dismiss legions of antsy children into the arms of their spring break. Teachers knew that their students wouldn't remember anything learned during zero hour, so they basically allowed their children to have free time until the school day was over. The Sailor Team, however, already knew what they wanted to do after the day was out. They would all meet up at The Sweet Bean, have coffee, and then head out to Shibuya 109, a humongous, trendy shopping mall, to at least do some window-shopping.

The final bell sounded at Juuban Junior High, which caused the students inside to cheer and victoriously race out of their classrooms. At T.A., when the bell sounded, the girls tried to keep their composure as they exited, but when their teachers were no longer watching, they started cheering and celebrating loudly.

"I'm so happy!" Sakura shouted, punching the air, as she exited her class.

"I can tell," Suzumi said cheerfully.

"Oh, I'm excited about going to 109, I haven't been there in a while," Sayaka added.

"Mm, me neither. I hope there will be some good sales," Natsumi declared.

"Should I go home and get more money?" Aiko queried.

"Yes!" the others replied, always wanting to see more of Aiko's classy condominium.

"Okay, then we'll detour to my house real quick, then to Sweet Bean, and then to Shibuya!" Aiko exclaimed. The others were excited and breathlessly ran the short distance to Aiko's complex.

"Hi, Haruka! Hi, Michiru!" Aiko called out when she opened the door to her house, a blanket call she always performed to see which of her mothers happened to be home at the time. Suzumi amused herself by going out onto the porch and peering out at the impressive pool, an amenity she loved to use. Sakura and Sayaka oohed and ahhed at Haruka's trophy cabinet and Natsumi did the same for Michiru's trophy cabinet.

"Hi, Aiko!" Michiru called from the master bedroom.

"Hi, Michiru-san!" Sayaka, Sakura, Suzumi, and Natsumi called out.

"How was school, Aiko?" Michiru asked as she entered the living room and greeted the girls.

"Eh, it was the final day before break," Aiko said, shrugging.

"We're going to Shibuya 109," Natsumi said cheerfully.

"Oh, Shibuya 109! I used to shop there, but I'm too old for their clothes now," Michiru said.

"Where'd Haruka go?" Aiko asked.

"She went to the track for some practicing," Michiru explained. "Do you need some money, Aiko? I know Shibuya 109 can be expensive and I don't think I've given you your allowance this week."

"I suppose that would be fine," Aiko said bashfully. Michiru immediately retrieved her wallet and peeled off a few bills, handing them to Aiko, who gracefully accepted them and slipped them into her pocket.

"You girls have fun," Michiru said with a smile. "You deserve it."

"Wow, that was so cool, she just went ahead and gave you some money," Natsumi reflected after the group left the condominiums and went in the direction of the Sweet Bean, where Reiko and Keiko were already waiting. The girls each purchased their favorite treats and adjourned from the shop, aiming towards the subway. When Reiko scanned her fare card at the station gates, with a pang of sadness she was reminded of the time when she thought for sure that Souji was following behind her. When she realized that her attraction and dedication to him was based only on a spell placed on her, though, she perked up. Sakura's goofy face as she tried to get her own fare card scanned didn't hinder the perking up process, either.

Shibuya 109 was a giant glass edifice with a cylindrical part sticking out towards the street. This part had "Shibuya 109" written on it in pink neon letters, plus an ad showing a girl winking and the words "Spring Sale!" The girls saw the cylinder, standing like a queen in a field of smaller, less glamorous buildings, and immediately ran towards it, entering on floor 2B.

2B is the second basement floor, dominated by Sony Plaza, which is not a place where Sony video games are sold. Rather, it is an accessories store, selling things like cute notebooks, et cetera. There was a similar store nearby, Bumble, plus a clothes store called Navana, its sister store, Navana Wig, and another clothes store called Spiral Girl. Sony Plaza and Bumble were both having competitive sales, so the girls poked around in both of them and each bought new notebooks that they could use next term. Spiral Girl yielded a white tank top with delicate pink bows for Keiko, Sayaka got a pair of jeans at Navana, and all the girls took candid shots of themselves wearing outlandishly-colored wigs at Navana Wig, an activity that was endorsed and supported by the sweet little kogal working there.

Perhaps it is necessary to explain the phenomena of kogals. Kogals are high school girls who enjoy wearing a certain style of dress. When they wear their school uniforms, they make sure their socks are nice and baggy and maybe leave their shirt untucked if they can so it'll mostly cover their skirt. Kogals also tend to dye their hair either brown or blonde and tan, whether through the normal sitting in the sun route or through different routes that may or may not involve lounging in a tanning bed. Sometimes, they also wear very light-colored makeup, like pure white lipstick and eyeshadow. Kogals are very common at Shibuya 109 because one of the ways they prove themselves is to buy trendy clothing.

The group rode the elevator up to B1, where they tried on expensive shoes at Esperanza, R&E, and Mihato without buying anything, pretended to be cool California girls at Rock American Market, monkeyed around in Me Jane, and scoped the wares out at ACZA and Voeux before going up to floor 1. The clothing selection at Dizzy, combined with the ridiculous bargains available, made the girls quite literally dizzy. Aiko managed to find a pair of good sandals at Pool Side and insisted on wearing them for the rest of the shopping excursion, though they made her feet ache.

Suzumi got her nails done in a French manicure style at the Nail Craft on the second floor and would surreptitiously stare at her fancy new nails every so often while walking through the stores or corridors. Sakura bought a pink jacket and a pink shirt at Pinky Girls, a store she swore was after her own heart. The group blushed innocently at some of the sexier offerings at Peach John lingerie store before racing into Head Star to try on hats and take more cute pictures. Each girl also tried on a different fragrance at Branche, though Reiko was the only one to actually buy her fragrance because she gave the Love Punch back to Natsumi and wanted a similar fragrance. Natsumi bought a purple purse at Galet's. The group decided to skip the fourth and fifth floors, which were entirely women's wear, because they didn't really like the selection of stores there. However, on the sixth floor, there was a store called La Vie Rose, an accessories store with an overwhelmingly pink color theme that enthralled Sakura and caused her to empty her wallet there.

On the seventh floor, the girls looked at swimsuits in Peak & Pine and then decided to eat at Ma Maison. Sakura was, of course, broke from her spree at La Vie Rose, so she had to borrow money from Aiko so she could eat. The girls moved some chairs from adjoining tables so they could all sit together and steal bites from one another's plates, a scene that was witnessed by a kogal sitting alone at a nearby table, reading from the contents of a black binder. She smiled, her white-painted lips stretching, and leapt up from the table to walk over, wobbling slightly on her platform boots.

"Excuse me," she said very politely as she approached. "How old are you girls?"

"Well, we're all 14 except for Natsumi here," Sakura said, pointing to Natsumi. "She's just 13."

"Have you ladies ever considered modeling or singing?" the kogal asked, twirling her white-blonde hair around on her neatly manicured finger as she spoke. Some of the girls looked flattered, while others looked baffled.

"I don't have the face for modeling," Suzumi said sheepishly, examining her fingernails.

"I don't have the body," Sayaka said, shrugging.

"Nonsense! Don't put yourselves down, ladies. Come on. I'll take you down to my agency when you're done eating."

"Your agency? You're a model?" Sakura asked in awe.

"Mm-hmm," the kogal answered. "My name's Mitsuko Kitano." She bowed deeply. "It's a pleasure to meet you all." The girls bowed back.

"What do you guys think? Should we do this?" Keiko asked.

"Yes!" came the resounding answer. Keiko shrugged and sucked down the rest of her Coke in one giant gulp, which prompted the other girls to finish eating quickly. Once they were all finished eating, Mitsuko led them to the elevator and pressed the down button, which allowed the girls to look at the scene airbrushed onto her artificial fingernail. Her nails were all painted with elaborate cherry trees, pink with blooming flowers, and some petals breezing around the trees.

Mitsuko led the group down to the second basement and led them out of Shibuya 109 onto the street. The group then struggled to keep up with her as she made her way down a labyrinthine stretch of crowded streets and alleyways until they finally stopped in front of a burnished metal door in an alleyway, crowned by a sign that said "Minerva Talent Agency" in curly purple letters. Mitsuko threw open the door and held it so the group could venture inside first.

Minerva was a small space, decorated in the minimalist style commonly found in lofts, with an area sectioned off for dressing, makeup, and photo shooting. There was also an area of desks and computers staffed by a few bored yet beautiful people. The whole area was incredibly well-lit and the walls were decorated with pictures of beautiful girls who were touted as Minerva Girls.

"Ah, Mitsuko-chan, you got seven girls?" one of the beautiful people at the desk cried in jealousy.

"I did. Where's Minerva herself?" Mitsuko asked.

"She's in the back room." This prompted Mitsuko to nod, ask the group to take a seat on the comfortable leather couches, and race towards the back of the room, where there were three different doors. "So, where are you ladies from?" the beautiful woman queried.

"Azabu Juuban," the group answered in unison.

"Ah, Azabu! I heard Ayumi Hamasaki lives there." Aiko smiled. Ayumi Hamasaki was her role model. "How old are you all?"

"I'm 13, but the rest are 14," Natsumi answered.

"You know, you look just like Minako Aino," the woman declared, pointing to Natsumi, who just blushed and looked at her shoes.

"Ohhh, seven new girls!" came a deep, female voice from the back of the room as the woman who called herself Minerva came in. She was tall, with deep tan skin, brown eyes, and purple hair that fell just below her ears. "Hello, girls, I am Minerva." She bowed and the group returned her bow. "So, what do you girls think about modeling?"

"I don't think I can do it," Sayaka offered shyly.

"Me neither," Suzumi added.

"I don't think so, either," Aiko added with a shrug.

"Well, you never know until you try. I'll give each of you ten frames and if I like what I see, we'll talk contracts. Hm, how does that sound?" Minerva asked, smiling. "Mitsuko, please go get Junji, Kirari, and Irie." Mitsuko nodded and went to the other back room. "First, we'll find some clothing for you all. If we shouldn't have your size…" This comment made Reiko, who was still smarting over having to change shirt sizes, feel bad. "Then we can just use what you have on. I think those uniforms are rather cute, myself." Mitsuko returned a few moments later with a tall bald man, a short woman with curly blonde hair, and a tall woman with long black hair in tow.

"Here they are, Minerva-san," Mitsuko said with a smile.

"Thank you, Mitsuko," Minerva said to Mitsuko, smiling sweetly at her, which seemed to be Mitsuko's cue to leave. She told one of the desk ladies that she was going back to Shibuya 109 and left the building. "Mitsuko is so not my type," Minerva said cattily. "That kogal thing, I hate it so much! But that whole style is lucrative. I like pale girls better."

"I agree," said the blonde woman.

"Now let me introduce my partners in crime," Minerva began. "This is Junji. He is our talented photographer." The bald man smiled and bowed. "This is Kirari. She is a makeup expert." The blonde woman smiled and bowed. "And this is Irie. She's the clothes maven." Irie bowed, but expressed no smile. "Junji, I want ten frames from each of these girls, okay?" Junji nodded. "Kirari, work your magic." Kirari gave a thumbs-up. "Irie, if there's nothing in the closet for the girls, just let them wear their school uniforms." Irie nodded slightly. "Okay! I'll be in the back if you need me." Minerva turned on her heel and walked to the back.

"Okay," Irie said in a husky voice. "Let's go to the closet." The closet wasn't a real closet, but just racks and racks of clothes anchored in the dressing area. There were all sorts of clothes: short- and long-sleeved shirts, tank tops, halter tops, tube tops, belly-baring tops, long tops, dresses of all lengths and cuts, short shorts, modest shorts, Bermuda shorts, jeans, khakis, short skirts, mid-length skirts, long skirts, floor-sweeping skirts, and enough shoes to make a fashionista cry in joy. However, most of the clothes were in small sizes like 3, 5, and 7, in keeping with the sizes most models wore so they could fit into the samples created by designers.

"Wow," the girls said in awe.

"Now, let's try to find some suitable clothes for you," Irie declared.


	15. Ten Frames of Pain

Chapter Fifteen: Ten Frames of Pain

Once the fitting was over and the dust had settled, all of the girls were decked out in clothes from the closet to match their favorite colors. Aiko was ecstatic about her black and blue outfit and wouldn't stop spinning around in the skirt, which was black with blue hearts all over it. Keiko was wearing a white Victorian-style blouse paired with crisp white pants and compared her outfit with Natsumi, who wore a silky purple top with a frilly purple skirt. Reiko wore a dark red top with black lace pattern matched with a slinky maroon and gold skirt that made her feel mature and elegant. Sakura wore a pink lace-up top with a pink skirt that had brown hearts on it that she was matching with products from La Vie Rose. Sayaka had on a brown halter top with brown pants, while Suzumi wore a similar halter top in blue coupled with her uniform skirt worn over a pair of jeans.

Kirari evaluated each girl's look one-on-one and dispensed the necessary makeup to enhance their features. To Aiko, she applied a layer of brown eyeliner to accentuate her blue eyes, but didn't do anything to her naturally curly hair. Keiko and Reiko's hair was placed partially in curlers and the result was that their ends were wavy and made them immediately look at least 16. They were given honey-colored lip gloss to accentuate their full lips. Natsumi (Kirari said the same thing about her that the desk woman did) was given a dusting of gold eyeshadow and a liberal coating of mascara. Her hair was also straightened to iron out the curled-up ends. A part of Sakura's hair was made into two pigtails and she was given pink lipstick coupled with mascara. Sayaka's hair was left alone, as it was too short to do much to, but she was given a coating of berry-colored lip gloss and mascara. Suzumi requested that Kirari do something wild to her hair, so Kirari took sections of it and placed them all in little ponytail holders.

Junji then snapped ten frames of each girl, going through a regimen of normal model poses and showing each girl how their frames looked right away on the computer that the camera was plugged into. He asked each girl to select her favorite, which they did, and requested that one of the desk people print a copy of the favorites as a keepsake. The girls were swathed in kindness—even Irie was nice once she got out of her cold shell—a kindness that quickly dissipated when Minerva was called in to appraise the photos and decide who she should talk contracts with.

"No," she immediately said to Suzumi's entire portfolio. "Who suggested this terrible hairstyle? It reminds me of something a washed-up punk rocker would wear." Suzumi looked defeated, though Aiko comforted her by patting her on the shoulder and whispering that she thought the hairstyle was cool. "Heavens, no," she said to Sayaka's portfolio. "Her nose is too bulbous." Sayaka rubbed her nose. "Too curly," she said about Aiko's hair, which Aiko saw as her crowning glory. "Lips are too full," she said about Reiko and Keiko. "Too cutesy," she said about Sakura, leaving Natsumi's portfolio to be critiqued.

"She's so mean!" Sakura stage-whispered.

"This one," Minerva began, indicating Natsumi's portfolio. "Is beautiful! My goodness, she looks like 100 model material." She found Natsumi, went up to her, and jabbed her finger into Natsumi's chest, just above her heart. Keiko, who was watching this whole scene even though she felt bad, swore she saw some sort of energy emission when Minerva did this bizarre thing to Natsumi's chest, but didn't make any comments. "What's your name, darling?"

"Um, Natsumi," Natsumi said shyly.

"Full name," Minerva said impatiently.

"Oh, Natsumi Aino," Natsumi answered.

"No wonder you're such great material! You're Minako's girl, aren't you?" Natsumi nodded. "Well, you look just like her! Come on, Natsumi, let's go discuss contracts. The rest of you are free to leave."

"'Bye, guys," Natsumi said cheerfully, waving to her defeated friends as she and Minerva made for the back rooms. The other girls, not knowing what else to do, changed back into their uniforms, took their favorite shots from Junji, and ran out of the building.

"I hate that woman!" Aiko roared as soon as they exited.

"She's so cruel, leading us on like that," Reiko declared.

"Making us think we were model material," Sayaka grumbled.

"And then she just went ahead and chose Natsumi," Keiko added.

"Probably because she has a legacy," Sakura said, tears shining in her eyes. "Let's just go home," she added, her voice cracking as a sign of the crying to come.

The subway ride home was awkward for each girl, as they all thought about the defect in them that Minerva pointed out so brutally. Suzumi tore the elastic holders from her hair that kept the style together and threw them to the floor of the train, though her head throbbed with pain afterwards. Sayaka stared into the window next to her and touched her nose. Aiko ran her hands through her hair, imagining them to be a straightening iron that would make her hair perfect. Reiko and Keiko unconsciously touched their fingers to their lips, wondering if they really were too full. Sakura took her hair out of the style that Kirari put it in, declaring silently that she wanted to stop being cutesy.

At the place where the girls separated to go to their respective homes, they bid each other goodbye in the way that someone leaving a funeral might and trudged home, wallowing in their own pain, completely unhappy even though they just had a fun shopping trip and it was now break time from school.

Natsumi sat in Minerva's office, picking at her cuticles as Minerva called Minako and asked her if she would consent to Natsumi signing a modeling contract. Minako was happy but cautious; she only wanted Natsumi to do modeling when she didn't have school to worry about, but she did tell Minerva that Natsumi was a good singer and, in the end, allowed Natsumi to sign a contract.

"I feel bad about my friends," Natsumi said as she signed her contract.

"Why so, Natsumi?" Minerva asked sweetly.

"Well, you really dealt them a harsh blow," Natsumi said.

"That's reality," Minerva said with a shrug. "I was actually being pretty nice to them. Some agents have full-on told girls that they're ugly or told them they need to get plastic surgery before they try again. I know one woman who personally paid for a girl's nose job because her nose was just terrible." She paused to let that sink in. "But Natsumi, you'll do great. I'm going to ask my assistants about possibly writing a song for you to sing."

"By myself?" Natsumi asked bashfully.

"By yourself," Minerva said with a nod. "What do you think?"

"I think that would be great!" Natsumi declared, smiling widely.

"Great. I'll tell the assistants," Minerva said, taking the signed contract from Natsumi. "You're not going to regret this." For some reason, this statement had exactly the opposite effect—Natsumi started to feel bad about the rest of her friends, but this feeling was quickly squashed when she felt a tingle in her heart and became excited again about what this contract could possibly mean for her.


	16. Are the pastures really greener?

Chapter Sixteen: Are the pastures really greener?

After Aiko got home from the modeling agency, she gathered a length of her thick, curly hair in her left hand, holding it taut as the straightener clamped down on that length, applying heat to it to temporarily turn it straight. She pulled the straightener down the entire length of the hair and, when she pulled it away, that particular length was stick-straight. Somehow, though, she didn't feel happy about it. In fact, she felt defeated. The door to her room was ajar and Haruka happened to glance into her room and see her daughter there, destroying her crowning glory.

"What are you doing?" she asked, entering Aiko's room. This startled Aiko and caused her to drop the straightener, though nothing was harmed.

"I…" Aiko pressed her lips together to try and stop the tears. "I…I was at Shibuya 109 earlier today and this talent scout named Mitsuko came up to me, asking all of us to follow her down to her modeling agency because she thought we were model material. Then, this crazy, eccentric lady with purple hair said that we could each get ten frames of pictures for her to look at. We got to wear pretty clothes and got makeup done, took the pictures, and then she rejected every one of us except Natsumi. She said my hair was too curly, so I'm going to make it straight now," Aiko explained.

"Models," Haruka began in a comforting tone of voice. "Are terrible people, Aiko. They're so conceited, they can't see past any outer differences that people might have. Personally, I think your curly hair is one of your best attributes." Aiko tentatively touched the newly straightened part of her hair.

"She had something bad to say about every one of us except Natsumi," Aiko added. "That really hurt."

"I can understand that. I still take a lot of flack for being a woman and racing. But I've learned that the opinions of those people don't matter. The only opinions that do matter come from people you care about because they know more about you than just what's on the outside." Haruka's words made Aiko confident enough to be proud of the picture that was sitting in a manila envelope on her desk.

"I got to choose which picture I thought was best," Aiko explained, handing Haruka the envelope. She opened it and immediately smiled upon seeing the picture within.

"It's beautiful, Aiko. I think I'm going to frame it," Haruka said, smiling, which made Aiko smile in return.

Suzumi returned to an empty house and took a long, hot shower. Seeing her hair dripping wet reminded her of Minerva's cruel words and gave her an idea. She went into the kitchen and dug around in the drawers until she found a pair of scissors, which she snatched up and took into the bathroom with her. Making sure the door was shut behind her, she sized up where she wanted her hair to end with her fingers, just like her stylist had done so many times before. She took a deep breath, spread the scissor blades wide, and proceeded to cut off a chunk of hair. It spiraled and fell to a rest on the tiled floor. This satisfied Suzumi, who cut the rest of her hair until it was the length she wanted it to be. However, she was nowhere near being a real stylist, so the ends were choppy and not all the same size.

That didn't matter.

She heard a key turn in the lock and looked to see who it was. When she saw that it was Ami, she hesitated for a moment before stepping out into the open, acting casual, like nothing was wrong, hoping her mother would notice. Indeed, she did.

"Hi, Suzumi, how was your…" Ami caught sight of her daughter. "Day?"

"It was good and then it was bad," Suzumi said. "Shopping was fun, but then…" She relayed the story of Minerva to Ami, who calmly listened without interjecting until the retelling was complete.

"Honey, nothing is wrong with you," Ami said in her quietly calm voice. "But I have to admit, the short hair is cute on you. However, you're not a licensed stylist, so it's not a perfect style. Would you like me to make a hair appointment for you?"

"I'd like that," Suzumi said, a small smile playing on her face as she touched her newly shortened hair and realized that the one person she cared about most, her mother, thought she was flawless, like a pearl, no matter what.

Sayaka was supposed to be helping out at the bakery, but she kept touching her nose so much that she couldn't concentrate on baking very well. When she messed up an order and had to re-do it, Makoto noticed this and took her into the back room to talk to her.

"Sayaka, you seem really off tonight. I know something's wrong," Makoto began.

"Yeah, something is wrong, Mom," Sayaka replied, fully launching into the story about Minerva and how her comments affected Sayaka personally.

"Bulbous?" Makoto repeated, spitting out that word in disgust. "That crazy purple-haired woman said your nose was too bulbous? I'm gonna get her!"

"No, Mom, don't get her," Sayaka said calmly, touching her nose.

"Well, I have to now, she's making you suffer! I saw you touch your nose just then," Makoto pointed out. "Sayaka, whose opinion do you value more? The opinion of a crazy woman with purple hair who runs a modeling agency and is trained to zero in on people's imperfections instead of seeing the whole picture? Or do you, by chance, value the opinion of your mother more?"

"That answer should be obvious, Mom," Sayaka said stubbornly.

"Good, because I think your nose is just fine. I don't understand this nose obsession, anyway, because most people really don't care about how other people's noses look unless there's snot coming out of them!" Makoto exclaimed, laughing heartily, making Sayaka join in.

"Are you ready?" Keiko asked Reiko, who nodded silently. "Okay." Keiko carefully held up a metal sewing needle, concentrated, and set the tip on fire using a tiny shot of flame from her fingers. She allowed the tip to burn for a few seconds before blowing out the flame, held the sterilized needle in her hand, and moved in on her sister's face. She held her left hand on Reiko's jaw, grasped the needle in her right hand, and swiftly brought it down on Reiko's lower lip. Reiko screamed out in pain and Keiko withdrew the needle, hoping that the fat that was making their lips too full would just sluice out of the puncture hole.

The only thing that sluiced out of that hole, however, was dark red blood that quickly ran down Reiko's chin and dripped into her waiting hand, causing her to panic.

"Oh crap," Keiko said flatly, racing to find a tissue that she could use to stop the bleeding. While dashing to the bathroom to get tissues, however, Keiko bumped into Rei, who could immediately sense what was wrong but decided to interrogate Keiko anyway.

"What's going on here?" Rei asked indignantly.

"N-nothing, Mom," Keiko said suspiciously.

"Then you don't suppose that, if I checked up on Reiko, she would be just fine?" Rei suggested. Keiko's stomach sank as she realized that Rei had her all figured out. "I thought so. Now, let's get her some tissues and go help her. Then, I'm going to ask you two what has gotten into you."

"It sucks having a psychic mom," Keiko observed as she pulled out three tissues to give to her sister.

"Reiko!" Rei called cheerfully as she and Keiko re-entered the room. "Keiko has some tissues for you to put on your cut. Once the blood stops flowing, I have a question for you two." Reiko, who was using her hand to slow the blood down, nodded as she was given the tissues. Keiko nodded as she gave the tissues over. It took a few minutes for the blood to stop gushing forth from the tiny indent, but once it did, the girls knew what they were in for. "What on Earth made you do that?" Rei asked Keiko.

"Our lips are too fat," Keiko explained.

"What? That's the most absurd statement I've heard in a long time, and remember, I married your father," Rei declared. "Who would make you think that your lips are fat?" This question caused the explanation to gush forth from both Keiko and Reiko's lips, though Reiko's response was garbled because the indent still hurt. "So a modeling agency woman named Minerva thinks your lips are too fat?" Rei asked once the explanations were finished. "That's stupid. Forget about what she thinks."

Rei always liked to keep it simple.

Sakura went around her room, systematically removing anything that looked cutesy and tossing it into a giant plastic trash bag. Trash pickup day was tomorrow, so she could start to rebuild herself then. One half of her room was barren, though her closet was still full of cute clothes that now disgusted her and her bag was getting full. Sighing, she went to get another plastic trash bag that she could fill with cute things. While she was gone, though, she left her room unattended and Usagi's eyes caught the giant, bulging trash bag sitting in the middle of a half-empty room.

"SAKURA!" she shouted. "WHY IS YOUR ROOM HALF-EMPTY?" Sakura's stomach sank like a stone. She decided to forsake the other trash bag and just explain her situation to Usagi, who would surely advance her allowance so she could go buy new clothes.

"So that's why I need an advance on my allowance," Sakura explained at the end of her story about Minerva.

"But Sakura," Usagi said, opening the bulging trash bag and looking at the things inside. "Cute is what you are. You love these things and they help to define who you are. Are you going to allow some random person to tear who you are apart and throw it to the wind?" She started taking items out and placing them on Sakura's bed. "No, Sakura, you can't allow that. I know it can be hard to when you're a teen, but you need to love who you are. Your friends can help you with that, and so can I, because I'm your mom and I love you and that's just how it is." Sakura fondly touched one of her favorite cute toys, a little pink bear that she won from a claw machine after feeding it over 1,000 yen. She felt much better after telling Usagi about this problem, but now she had to put all her stuff back where it belonged.

"Mom?" she asked as Usagi turned to leave the room. "Can you help me put my stuff back in its place?"


	17. Kaleidoscope

Chapter Seventeen: Kaleidoscope

Note: 119 is the actual Japanese equivalent of 911, not a typing error. And the woman who helps Natsumi out is a reference to both Naoko Takeuchi and Megumi Hayashibara. Naoko lives in Azabu Juuban, Megumi is a nurse. It'll make sense, trust me.

"I'm sorry, I'm going to be really busy today," Natsumi said into her phone as she stood on the subway, impatiently waiting for her station to come up. "Minerva said my song should be ready today."

"Oh, you're going to record?" Sakura asked on the other end as she fiddled with the wrapper of a cookie.

"I'm going to start that process. Who knows how long it'll take, though. Minerva says my voice needs work."

"Minerva doesn't have a nice bone in her body," Sakura pointed out.

"Perhaps." Sakura could hear the chime on Natsumi's train ding, signaling the arrival of a station. "I have to go, this is my station."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later," Sakura said. "Good luck with your song!"

"Thanks! Bye!" Natsumi hung up her phone and threw it into her new purse, the one she got from Shibuya 109. She remembered where she bought the purse with a smile as she daintily stepped off the train and started towards Minerva's. Her break was turning out to be the exact opposite—instead of an ability to sleep in late, spend the day having fun, and stay up late, she was waking up early, spending most of her day at Minerva's doing modeling things, and going to bed early because she would be exhausted. She, however, mostly liked the experience. There were other models around that she was making friends with, including Mitsuko, she loved dressing up and getting made up, and Minerva was warming up to her.

"Good morning, Natsumi," said Yurina, the girl who worked at the reception desk, as Natsumi entered and scribbled her name down on the sign-in sheet.

"Morning, Yurina," Natsumi responded.

"Minerva wants to see you in her office," Yurina reported, pointing towards Minerva's office. Natsumi smiled, nodded, and walked towards Minerva's office, nervous but happy about what could be waiting there.

When she stepped inside, she was handed a piece of paper entitled "Moonlight Densetsu".

"This will be your debut single, Natsumi," Minerva reported with a big smile. "Today, we're going to practice singing it. Practice makes perfect, after all. First, you can listen to the track itself. I've provided vocals, too, so you can hear how the song is supposed to sound." Minerva slid a CD player with headphones over the surface of her desk, prompting Natsumi to put the headphones on and push the play button. She grabbed her lyric sheet and read along as Minerva sang the song, noting that Minerva had a pretty good voice.

"That sounds pretty cool," Natsumi remarked once the song was over.

"Wonderful. Are you ready to sing it yourself yet?" Minerva asked.

"I'm a bit nervous," Natsumi admitted.

"Oh, don't be! Your first recording won't be used as the final recording, I can assure you that," Minerva replied, smiling sweetly. "Come on, let's go to the studio now." The studio, as it was, was through one of the other doors at the back of the agency. It consisted of little more than a mixing room with a computer and a mixing board attached to the recording area itself. Also, it was dark inside, which made Natsumi tense up.

"It's small," Natsumi reported nervously.

"It doesn't need to be big," Minerva replied. "Now, I'll listen in and give you comments as you record to help your progression as a singer. Okay?" She opened the door to the recording area, which was, of course, soundproofed. There was a stand for the lyrics sheet, a microphone suspended from the ceiling, and a pair of large black headphones sitting on the stand. Natsumi walked over to the microphone and gingerly placed her lyrics on the stand. Minerva had her go through a series of vocal-strengthening warm-up exercises that sounded odd but got the job done, as Natsumi's voice rang out clear as a bell in the recording. Minerva had Natsumi sing through the entire song a few times before sending her home for the day, exhausted.

"How are things?" Mitsuko asked, coming into the mixing room after Natsumi was sent homeward to find Minerva holding a sort of red, pulsating orb in her left hand. "Oh, you got quite a lot today," Mitsuko observed. "How strong do you think you are now?"

"I'm getting much closer," Minerva replied, her lips curling into a twisted smile. Mitsuko watched in awe as Minerva breathed in deeply before shoving the red orb into her ample chest. It shone for a moment and disappeared. "Oh, I feel so much better. Mitsuko, do you happen to have any available?"

"I think." Mitsuko inhaled and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply and crossing her hands over her chest. When she exhaled, she brought her hands away from her chest and revealed another pulsating red orb. This one was slightly smaller than the one Minerva previously had, though, which infuriated her.

"You haven't been working hard enough today!" Minerva roared, snatching up the orb and shoving it angrily into her chest. "Mitsuko! You disappoint me." Mitsuko hung her head in shame. "Leave." Minerva pointed to the door and Mitsuko quickly complied.

Natsumi felt somewhat dizzy when she walked into the subway station, so she stopped at one of the ubiquitous vending machines and purchased a can of Georgia coffee. She had trouble finding the coins to use in her purse, though, because her hands kept slipping. As she put the coins into the machine, her eyelids suddenly grew heavy and she let out a great yawn that fogged up the vending machine's glass screen. With difficulty, though, she did manage to pick the correct drink and soon took a large swig of the coffee within in the hopes that it would perk her up.

_Why am I so tired?_ she asked herself as she stood at the platform, craning her neck to see if a train was coming in, as was everyone else standing nearby. When the train did arrive, she stumbled onto the first available car and slumped into one of the seats. A moment later, her eyes closed and she fell asleep. She was eventually awakened, though, by a sudden jostling on the train as it came to a stop in…

"Minami Senju?" she said in utter disbelief, as she should have disembarked the train back at Hiroo, which was quite far away from Minami Senju. Yawning, Natsumi exited the train and simply adjourned to the platform that would take her back to Hiroo. As she stood on the platform, incredibly far away from the familiarity of Juuban, she yawned again and made a flimsy promise to herself that she wouldn't doze off on the homeward bound train, a promise she quickly broke near Tsukiji but sustained once more when the train stopped in Hibiya because some jerk shook her awake in order to ask if she was Minako. This kept her awake, but groggy, until Hiroo, when she stumbled off the train and started to head home. While she was on the street, though, the feeling of dizziness swept her like a tsunami, making her feel physically unable to move forward any more. She let out a small noise of frustration before her eyes rolled back into her head and she started toppling. A woman walking nearby saw this happening and rushed to Natsumi's aid, catching her before she could fall.

"Are you all right, miss? Miss?" the woman asked, shaking Natsumi slightly, but she was out. "I better call the ambulance." She whipped out her tiny cell phone and hurriedly dialed 119, moving Natsumi over to the inner edge of the sidewalk so people could get around. When the woman finished the call, Natsumi came to, blinking repeatedly and trying to look around, but feeling unable to.

"Where am I?" she asked groggily.

"You're on Juuban Street," the woman answered, smiling and shaking a tendril of her hair from her face. "I called the ambulance. You were about to hit the ground, you know. Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure of that myself," Natsumi said truthfully. "Thank you for helping me. What's your name?"

"Naoko Hayashibara," the woman replied. "I'll stay with you until the ambulance comes."

"Thank you," Natsumi said weakly before letting out a small yelp and going under again.

Natsumi awoke this time in a white, sanitized hospital room, sitting in a white, sanitized hospital bed. She sat up, still feeling a bit tired, and looked around to see if anyone she knew was around. The door was slightly ajar, which allowed her to hear Minako in the hallway, frantically asking a nurse where Natsumi was.

"Mom!" Natsumi called out. "I'm in here!" Minako whirled around upon hearing the source of the noise and rushed into the room. When she saw that Natsumi was okay, she exhaled loudly and put her hand against her heart.

"Oh, Natsumi! Thank goodness you're okay!" Minako said. "The nurse told me you fainted on the street."

"I did?" Natsumi asked, unaware of what had happened to herself.

"You did," Minako responded, nodding.

"Is she awake?" Rei asked, poking her head into the room. She was chewing on a candy bar and had another one in her right hand.

"She is now," Minako told Rei.

"I brought you a snack, Natsumi," Rei said, waggling the candy bar that she wasn't eating.

"Cool, thanks," Natsumi said, gracefully accepting the candy bar and unwrapping it.

"So, what happened?" Rei asked. "I didn't hear the story."

Natsumi took a bite of the candy bar, noting how delicious it was, before telling the story of her day to Minako and Rei. As Natsumi retold the story, she was hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion that almost knocked her out again. Rei's eyes widened in shock when Natsumi felt suddenly exhausted, followed by a gasp because she sensed a terribly evil presence.

"What's wrong, Rei?" Minako asked nervously.

"I just felt something evil right then," Rei explained.

"What?" Minako asked, her voice rising to dangerous levels. "Where?" Rei shut her eyes and concentrated deeply on finding the evil presence before pointing to Natsumi's chest. "Rei, are you sure?"

"I'm absolutely sure," Rei said gravely.


	18. The Light of a Pure Heart

Chapter Eighteen: The Light of a Pure Heart

Each day, Natsumi would sing her song over and over, again and again, wondering which one would sound good enough for Minerva to use as the final recording. Similarly, each day, Natsumi would drag herself home, feeling like a zombie. Rei tried to exorcise the evil presence, but her attempts failed and she simply wrote Natsumi off, saying she had no idea what was wrong. Natsumi's break time was withering away and school was looming on the horizon. Finally, one fine day, Minerva announced that recording was now complete and mixing was up next, which wouldn't take as long to do.

Only three days later, an advance copy of Moonlight Densetsu performed by Natsumi Aino was in Natsumi's hands. Naturally, she wanted to celebrate this milestone, so she decided to throw an advance release party at the agency. Her fear of paparazzi led her to invite only her friends and family, plus some of the other people at the agency, and she made every single person invited swear that they wouldn't tell the media or anybody else about the party.

"I feel so un-glamorous," Sayaka mumbled to Aiko as they entered the party, flanked by Makoto, Toshiya, Haruka, and Michiru. All six people were dressed in casual clothing, thinking that this party would be a casual get-together of friends and family. Indeed, the friends and family were all dressed casually; however, the other models at the agency were all dressed to the nines.

"You're not the only one," Aiko, who still had bad memories of this agency, replied as she nervously stroked her hair, an act that led Haruka to put her hand on her daughter's shoulder protectively.

"Sayaka! Aiko! Hi!" Natsumi, who was clad in a slinky purple figure-hugging dress, called out as she ran over and bowed deeply. "Hello, Makoto-san, Toshiya-san, Haruka-san, Michiru-san, how are you all doing?"

"Oh, Natsumi, you look so happy," Michiru noted. "You're glowing!"

"Thanks! This is a big milestone for me!" Natsumi replied cheerfully.

"Nacchi, we didn't dress up," Sayaka pointed out.

"We thought this event would be casual," Aiko added.

"I'm sorry about that," Natsumi said as she tugged at the hem of her dress to show it off proudly. Aiko and Sayaka shot one another a glance that suggested it wasn't just a coincidence. They mutually thought that Minerva purposefully wanted everyone who wasn't affiliated with her agency to feel inadequately dressed.

Sakura chatted amicably with Reiko and Keiko at the refreshment table while they picked out food from a delightful spread that was going basically untouched by the models.

"I can't believe that nobody is touching this food!" Sakura exclaimed as she piled her plate high with cookies.

"Sakku, these people are _models_. They're not going to eat the foods here," Reiko pointed out as she stabbed a cube of cheese with a toothpick and plopped it onto her plate.

"They probably all ate a slice of M&M earlier and are good to go," Keiko added, giggling, while she poured herself some fruit punch.

"A slice?" Reiko asked. "You eat M&Ms whole."

"Models don't," Keiko replied.

While Suzumi was flaunting her new hairstyle to Natsumi, who approved of it, Minerva suddenly turned on a microphone, which caused feedback to resonate through the room. Everyone cringed in pain, but the feedback was quickly resolved.

"Sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen," Minerva said sheepishly. "Technical difficulties. They're the worst, aren't they?" This joke caused some of the guests to chuckle patronizingly—Minerva was not known for her comedic abilities. "Everyone, today I am proud to present the debut single from up-and-coming singer slash model, Natsumi Aino! Natsumi, would you like to say a few words?" Natsumi hustled over to the microphone.

"Hi everyone, I'm Natsumi," she began, waving hello. "And I'm nervous. This is my debut single and you are getting to hear it before anyone else. Why? Because you all are the people who are close to me and well, I thought it would be wrong not to have an event like this. Please enjoy my debut single, Moonlight Densetsu." She left the microphone to thunderous applause and intermittent cheering provided by her friends, and then she sat down next to Minerva, who was starting the song up.

"Nervous?" Minerva asked.

"Yeah," Natsumi confessed as the intro played. Some of the guests nodded in approval at the instrumentation right before Natsumi's voice kicked in.

_Gomen ne sunao ja nakute_

_Yume no naka nara ieru_

_Shikou kairo wa short sunzen_

_Ima sugu aitai yo_

"This song is cool," Keiko reported. "Maybe I should review it for the paper when it's released."

_Nakitaku naru you na moonlight_

_Denwa mo dekinai midnight_

_Datte junjou doushiyou_

_Heart wa mangekyou_

"Nacchi sounds really good," Suzumi said to Aiko, who nodded.

_Tsuki no hikari ni michibikare_

_Nando mo meguriau _

"Are you feeling kind of tired?" Sakura suggested to Reiko.

"How can you possibly be tired? You've eaten five cookies!" Reiko pointed out. "Actually, I'm feeling kind of sleepy myself."

Natsumi saw some people yawning and otherwise expressing exhaustion and was hurt, thinking that these people didn't like her song, which made her worried. Minerva smiled maliciously as she viewed Natsumi's reaction, knowing very well what was going to happen after the first verse was over.

_Seiza no matataki kazoe_

_Uranau koi no yukue_

_Onaji kuni ni umareta no_

_Miracle Romance_

Right as a short instrumental began, the guests all simultaneously felt exhausted, so much so that each and every one of them fainted right on the spot. Natsumi and Minerva were the only ones still conscious. When Minerva was assured that everyone else was unconscious, she stopped the music.

"Oh my God!" Natsumi cried, clapping her hands to her mouth as her eyes widened. "Minerva! What happened to everyone?" Before Natsumi could get a proper answer, Minerva stood up from her chair, held her right hand aloft, and cried out "_Minerva Power, Make Up!_" A brilliant pink flash covered her and she was instantly transformed. She now wore a two-piece sailor suit with a purple collar and bow, a pink button, pink bow in the back, a purple skirt with a pink hem, and purple pumps.

"Finally, with these people's energy, I grew powerful enough to transform," Minerva bragged. "For this I am thankful. Natsumi, perhaps you should know why this is happening." Natsumi was already rooting around in her clutch for her transformation stick, which she took everywhere with her. "Don't do that." She pointed to Natsumi, who was electrically shocked and didn't look for her transformation stick anymore. "You see, Natsumi, I serve Chaos, helping it to take a human form eventually. That hasn't happened yet, but my friends and I were sent here to gather energy that we then transfer to Chaos, allowing it to grow." Minerva paused. "These people are being used to fuel Chaos right now and are completely unaware of it."

"That's evil!" Natsumi protested, snatching her transformation stick from her purse. "_Mini Venus Power, Make Up!_" she shouted, transforming before Minerva could stop her.

"You're fast!" Minerva commented. "But are you smart? Smart enough to start connecting the dots between your frequent bouts with exhaustion and the things I just told you about my master, Chaos?" Natsumi started to mentally connect the dots. "Natsumi, you are also being used as fuel."

"I won't allow it anymore! I won't allow you to use the people I love for such a terrible cause!" Natsumi protested.

"Then come at me with everything you have," Minerva commanded.

"With pleasure." Natsumi conjured up a whip and lashed out at Minerva, who completely blocked the attack.

"Is that it? That's all you have? That's so pathetic," Minerva replied, grinning before zapping Natsumi with a beam of dark energy that landed on her right shoulder. She yelped in pain and clutched her injured shoulder protectively before creating another whip and lashing out at Minerva again with the same results. "Pathetic!" Minerva curled her hand into a fist and quickly uncurled it, which caused jagged shards of dark energy to emerge and pin Natsumi to the nearby wall. Though she struggled to free herself from her newly-imposed immobility, she failed. "Face it, kid, you're a failure without the rest of your friends here to defend you." Minerva indicated Natsumi's friends, who were all unconscious. "Unfortunately, soon they will be completely drained of energy. Do you know what happens when someone is completely drained? They die."

"I won't let that happen!" Natsumi cried. _Everyone, help me. If you can hear me, if you can sense me, please help me in any way that you can. _She shut her eyes to concentrate on her plea and suddenly felt as if she were truly glowing. Her eyes were shut, so she could not see the fact that she was, indeed, glowing as six faint orbs of white light intersected and plunged deep into her chest, defeating the dark curse inside.

_We'll help you out! _the voices of Natsumi's friends rang out in her head. _Now, use this sword and defeat Minerva!_

_What sword? _Natsumi asked, but her question was answered as the handle of a sword emerged from her button. She opened her eyes and grasped the sword's pure white handle, slowly extracting it, fearing that it would hurt as it emerged from within her body. However, it didn't hurt one bit. The sword was made of shining silver metal with a glowing heart shape shining a combination of red, gold, green, blue, and aqua near the handle. Once the sword was fully removed, Natsumi moved her hands so she could grip it properly.

_Do it, Natsumi! Stab Minerva right in her heart! Aim for the button! _

_The button! _Natsumi thought, nodding slightly, before releasing a ferocious warrior cry that caused the five pins holding her to the wall to shatter. Minerva was startled by the cry, the power, and the sword all at once, which momentarily stunned her. This was Natsumi's best chance and she gladly seized it, charging with the point of the sword aimed directly at Minerva's pink button. When she pierced the button, Natsumi thought of everyone that was currently unconscious and wished for them to come back. Minerva screamed out in pain as the sharp sword made its way through her button and into her black heart. The heart glowed white and Minerva's eyes went dead the second before she turned to a pile of ash that disappeared, leaving Natsumi standing there, holding her sword in awe.

"I did this!" she cried out in victory. "Yes!" She pondered the sword and realized that the unconscious people would soon regain consciousness. Her fears were somewhat assuaged, however, when she realized that all the models and people who didn't already know about her powers were dissolving into piles of ash as well. "Everyone, please come back now!" She raised her sword high and the white light engulfed the entire room, healing the unconscious and bringing them back to consciousness.

"Nacchi!" Sakura, who was nearest to Natsumi, cried out. "Nacchi, look at your sword!"

"You helped me make it," Natsumi replied. "I called out for your help and you gladly gave what you could. Everyone else helped me, too," she added as she noticed Reiko, Keiko, Suzumi, Sayaka, and Aiko all staring in awe. "Thank you, everyone." She pressed her button and de-transformed, her sword disappearing back into her pure heart until the next time it would become necessary.


	19. Back in Session

Chapter Nineteen: Back in Session

Sayaka was inordinately excited about going back to school, obsessively crossing off the days on her calendar until the end of break. Each day, she would go over to the park and run laps before throwing softballs at the net set up in her backyard just for this purpose. She was working on perfecting her pitching techniques because she wanted to get on the softball team this time. She tried to get on the team before and was turned away, so now she was dead-set on improving herself so she could don the softball uniform. The efforts of her daily regimen were starting to show, too, in areas that had been affected by her affection for her mother's creations.

On the first morning of the new term, Sayaka expressed a desire to check the notice board first thing to see if there were any new announcements about the softball team, but Natsumi talked her out of it after pointing out the fact that there would be a mandatory "welcome back" assembly first thing and the punishments for missing it would be stricter than usual. Defeated, Sayaka sat through the entire welcome back assembly, her feet itching to rush to the notice board the moment she was released from welcome back hell.

When she was finally released, not a moment too soon, she hustled over to the notice board, and scanned it hastily. Amidst notices about a bevy of other clubs, there was a piece of paper asking for potential softball players to sign up for tryouts. Sayaka felt overjoyed as she reached for the attached pen, ready to write her name on the sheet, but another hand reached the pen first. Sayaka looked over and saw a tall blonde and tanned girl scribbling her name onto the top of the list—Eri Nakajima.

"Excuse me," Sayaka said faux-apologetically when Eri was done writing her name and the pen was free. She snatched it and hurriedly wrote her name underneath Eri's right as the bell rang. Gasping, Sayaka ran into the 3-B classroom, which was right next door, and lunged into her seat near the door. The teacher did not arrive right at the bell, however, because he was outside talking to Eri. When his conversation was finished, he plodded into the room and took a stand at his podium.

"Everyone, today a new person joins the 3-B family. Please give a friendly welcome to Eri Nakajima." The students greeted Eri, who bowed slightly before gathering herself and moving to the only open desk, which happened to be to the right of Sayaka's.

"Hey," Eri said casually as she sat down. "So, you wanna be on the softball team?"

"Yeah," Sayaka answered. "Your accent sounds new. Where are you from?"

"Osaka," Eri said proudly. "So, I'm sorry if I have an accent."

"Now, let's get started with English class," the teacher announced, which was followed by a cacophonous rustling as kids retrieved their supplies for English class from their bags or desks. Eri smiled kindly at Sayaka before whirling around to face the teacher so she could get started with the lesson.

The school day couldn't end fast enough for Sayaka, who was anxious to run out to the field and participate in the tryouts. She watched as the clock made its weary, slow journey to the final bell. When that moment finally arrived, she bolted from her desk like a bolt of lightning, stopping just long enough to change into her gym clothes before heading outside. There was a fairly large contingency of girls standing outside, either clustered in little groups or alone, some doing some warm-up stretches and some doing absolutely nothing to prepare. Sayaka decided to do stretches as well, so she put her bag down and stretched her hands well over her head. When Eri noticed Sayaka there, she smiled and walked over.

"Hey again," she said.

"Oi," Sayaka answered curtly as she did another stretch.

"You ready for the tryouts?" Eri asked, copying Sayaka's stretch.

"I've been ready for a long time," Sayaka replied. "I've been practicing daily."

"What position do you play?" Eri queried.

"Pitcher," Sayaka said proudly. "Coach says I have one of the best throwing hands she's ever seen."

"That's cool," Eri replied. "I'm a pitcher, too."

"Really? Did you play back in Osaka?"

"You bet. I was one of the best in the entire city!" Eri bragged right as a whistle blew and the coach appeared, wearing a ball cap to protect her eyes from the sun and chewing some gum.

"Good afternoon, ladies," she said, looking at her clipboard. "As you may or may not know, I'm the softball coach here at Juuban. My name is Takahashi-sensei. I'm also the homeroom teacher for 2-A. I see a few familiar faces in this crowd." She smiled. "Anyway, let's get on with this. If you know a position that you want to play, assemble into a group with like-minded ladies. Pitchers here, catchers here—we'll assign bases when the time comes—batters here. Okay?" There were a few nods and muffled 'okay's. "Good. All right, ladies, let's get into groups." Eri and Sayaka maneuvered themselves into the group of aspiring pitchers, which was fairly small; the aspiring batters group was much larger, though the pitchers all knew that the batters were nothing without a ball to hit.

When it came time for the pitchers to prove themselves, one of the girls was so racked by nervousness that she could barely throw at all. Another girl threw, but her pitch was lousy and the coach made sure that she knew it. The girl in front of Sayaka threw as well; however, she accidentally hit one of the prospective batters square in the forehead and was asked to leave. At last, Sayaka was up. She took the mitt in her left hand and the ball in her right and trudged up to the mound, staring intently at the catching net. It looked just like the one at her house, which comforted her in an uncomfortable moment. All eyes were on her, so she wound up tightly and threw a deftly tricky change-up that was followed by applause.

"Good job, Sakamoto," the coach said, giving a thumbs-up. "Okay, Nakajima, you're up." Eri sauntered up to the mound and got the mitt and ball from Sayaka with a self-satisfied smile pasted upon her face. Sayaka vacated the mound, which allowed Eri to wind up and throw a change-up as well, one that was just as good as Sayaka's—or perhaps better, Sayaka thought as her stomach sank. "Good job, Nakajima!" the coach exclaimed.

"One of the best in all of Osaka," Eri reminded Sayaka while she found a place to sit down.

"Whatever," Sayaka said dismissively, unsuccessfully trying to put that change-up out of her memory.

"Jealous much?" Eri asked, flipping her hair back and laughing a little lilting laugh.

"You wish," Sayaka replied, frowning before turning back to the coach, who was announcing which prospective batters would gain the ability to put on a real uniform. The ones who were not chosen were responding appropriately with tears and disappointment, while the chosen few were cheering and jumping around gleefully. The same scenario played out with prospective catchers, who were each assigned a base as well. Finally, the coach came up to the prospective pitchers. Sayaka calculated her chances in her head. Two girls threw terribly, one girl was asked to leave, and Eri threw, well, splendidly.

"Nakajima, Kawakami, and…Sakamoto, welcome to the team," the coach said affectionately. Kawakami was the girl who didn't throw well, but she wasn't the nervous girl. "Kawakami, your form needs a little help. After school tomorrow, could you come down here for a special training session before practice begins?" Kawakami nodded yes. "Great. Nakajima, you're going to be the starting pitcher. Sakamoto, you'll take over in the fourth inning. Kawakami can be the relief pitcher."

Sayaka felt both happy and sad—happy that she was on the team, but sad because there was a very large part of her that wanted to be the starting pitcher. Now, some new kid from Osaka stuck her nose into the situation and stole her thunder. Sayaka deduced that that action would not be easily forgiven and vowed to do her best during both practices and games so she could prove herself.


	20. Stolen Thunder

Chapter Twenty: Stolen Thunder

Koshien is a high school baseball tournament. It's huge all over Japan, kind of like the World Series but with high schoolers. Also, baseball games at this level are 7 innings, not 9, so I'm going to assume softball games are the same.

Softball games were usually not very well-attended, as most people chose to pay attention to baseball games because their players had a possibility of growing up and going to Koshien or possibly the major leagues. However, now that Sayaka was on the team, everyone she knew was making a positive effort to attend softball games, such as the opener, which Sayaka considered an important milestone.

Sayaka sat in the bullpen, chewing gum and looking out at the stands. It took her a moment to see, but she scanned the thin crowd carefully and saw the smiling faces of Sakura, Suzumi, Natsumi, Aiko, Usagi, Minako, Makoto, Toshiya, Michiru, and even the Hino twins, still clad in their T.A. uniforms. They were all sitting together, some eating the snacks that were being sold at the concession stand and some just chatting with one another.

_They're all here to watch me,_ Sayaka remarked to herself. _So I need to do my best! _The game started and Eri ran out onto the field to take her place at the mound, which still infuriated Sayaka as she sat in the bullpen with all the other girls who weren't starters on the roster.

By the time Eri came back to the bullpen at the top of the fourth inning, the other team—Shiba Kouen Junior High—was winning 4-1. Some of the people in the stands were already starting to speculate about who would win and lose this particular game, most people calling for Shiba Kouen to win simply because they were already on top. Sayaka, though, had a different idea. She noticed flaws in Eri's pitching style that she was going to improve on as she put on the glove and ran out onto the field, causing her friends and family to erupt in cheers and Eri to sulk in the bullpen.

Sayaka threw beautifully during her innings, fourth through seventh. The Shiba Kouen players were unable to tell where the pitches were going to go most of the time and were therefore unable to hit them correctly. Juuban won by a score of 6-4. Afterwards, the members of each team told one another "good game" and dispersed, searching for their parents or their rides home. Sayaka was walking off towards the rest of her group when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder and whirled around to see Eri glaring at her.

"You stole my thunder!" Eri barked.

"There was no thunder to steal," Sayaka replied. "Eri, your pitches were so misguided today. If you want to even try to compete with me, you need to try a lot harder than that."

"Okay, maybe I will!" Eri declared.

"Maybe you will," Sayaka echoed, glancing down at her shoulder. "Please remove your hand from my shoulder." Eri did so hurriedly. "Thank you." Sayaka turned around again, so Eri was staring at the back of her uniform, where SAKAMOTO 7 was written in huge white letters. With a burst of energy, Sayaka ran off and found her group.

"Sayarin!" Sakura cried out, waving her arms. "Sayarin, you were great!"

"You really turned the game around," Natsumi added helpfully.

"It's sad to see my alma mater lose, but the better women won," Minako said with a shrug.

_That stupid Sayaka,_ Eri thought as she walked along the field, kicking dirt up with her feet. _But I shouldn't worry. I know I'll get the upper hand. I already gave her the Mark when she took the mitt from me before the fourth inning. _As Eri walked along, a smile broke onto her face before turning into full-on laughter that made some of the people in the stands give her funny looks.

As a celebration, Sayaka's entire group went into an ice cream shop near the school and had ice cream. Sakura was poking at strawberry gelato, Suzumi was dipping into some old-school chocolate, Reiko and Keiko were sharing a banana split, Natsumi was working her way through a huge sundae, Aiko nibbled daintily at vanilla, and Sayaka had vanilla drenched with hot fudge sauce. The adults all shared a large variety plate and talked about their days at school.

While Sayaka chewed on a bit of hot fudge, though, she noticed a bit of a stinging sensation in her left hand. She glanced at her palm, but saw nothing different, and thought that, perhaps, one of the balls she caught during the game were so forceful that it just made her hand hurt a little. Shrugging the slight pain off, she went back to nibbling at her ice cream.

The next day at softball practice, Sayaka was throwing too well for Eri's tastes. So, Eri squinted and concentrated deeply on making Sayaka's throws errant and off-center. Sayaka reacted to this with natural shock, wondering what was making her so terribly 'off' and getting embarrassed as the coach started critiquing her rather harshly. She happened to glance into the dugout and saw Eri giggling at her misfortune.

"Come on, Sakamoto, are you being possessed or something?" the coach shouted when Sayaka threw her mitt down in protest and stomped off the field, saying something about going to the bathroom but grabbing her bag from the dugout while she left. Instead of going to the bathroom, she left the school. After a quick stopover at The Sweet Bean for a sweet treat to drown her emotions in, she decided to go to Aiko's house. Aiko was good at listening to people's problems and suggesting solutions, though sometimes they were unorthodox.

"Hi, Haruka-san," Sayaka said glumly when Haruka answered the door at the Kaiou-Tenou condo.

"Oh, Sayaka, what's wrong? You look sad," Haruka remarked. "Please, come in." She stepped aside to allow Sayaka entry. "You were just on the top of the world last night. It seemed like nothing could bring you down." Sayaka heard, from behind a closed door, Michiru practicing a complicated violin piece. When Haruka noticed Sayaka hearing this, she smiled. "Aiko!" Haruka shouted. "Sayaka's here!"

"Ah, hold on!" Aiko shouted back from her room, followed by a rumble as she ran out of her room and into the living room. "Hey, Sayarin. You look pretty down in the dumps. What's up?"

"I was really off today," Sayaka explained, hanging her head. "I don't know what's happened to me! It was like a day and night thing." She sighed loudly. "That Eri girl was laughing at me."

"Who's Eri?" Aiko asked.

"Oh, right, you're in 3-C, not 3-B. Eri is this new girl from Osaka. Her family name is Nakajima. She was the starting pitcher last night," Sayaka explained.

"She was terrible!" Aiko exclaimed. "You were a great chunk of the reason Juuban won!"

"Really, Sayaka, she was terrible," Haruka added.

"Do you think so?" Sayaka asked, her eyes brightening slightly.

"Definitely," Aiko replied, nodding. "But if she gets in your way again, do you want me to take care of her?"

"Aiko," Haruka said sternly. "You can't solve every problem by 'taking care' of people."

"Aw, come on, Haruka, not even just a little roughing up?" Aiko bargained.

"What a moral standard," Haruka muttered, holding her head.

"Okay, I won't rough her up." Aiko glanced at Sayaka as if to say 'The deal's not off just yet'. "But Sayaka, if she starts talking trash to you, try just ignoring her. If you can come up with a really good reply, say it!" She gave a victory sign right as a surge of pain made Sayaka's left palm throb.

"Ow!" Sayaka barked.

"Sayaka!" Aiko and Haruka shouted.

"Are you okay?" Aiko asked.

"Ah, my palm just hurts," Sayaka explained, smiling wearily.

"Oh, maybe I can help with that," Aiko offered, taking her stick out from within her skirt pockets. "_Triton Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Once she was transformed, she concentrated deeply, clapped her hands together, and watched them start to glow. "Hold out your hand." Sayaka held out her left hand and Aiko hovered her glowing hands over it for a few seconds.

"Is it feeling any better?" Haruka asked. Sayaka waited for a moment to see if any pain would come back before answering.

"Yeah, it is," Sayaka replied with a smile. "Thanks, Aiko! I didn't know you could heal, too."

"Me neither! I just can," Aiko replied, touching her button and de-transforming.

"Thanks for hearing me rant," Sayaka said graciously.

"It's no problem. I always will, you know," Aiko promised. "Until we're old and wrinkly grandmas yelling at kids to get off our lawns."


	21. The Curse

Chapter Twenty-one: The Curse

Sayaka wanted to prove herself to Eri at the next softball practice, and managed to for her first few pitches, but then the pain in her left hand kicked in again, a sensation similar to being stabbed with hundreds of needles. It was, in fact, so severe that she simply left practice, firmly placing herself in the coach's bad graces.

Day after day, she would be stricken with terrible pain during her practicing, pain that could not be tamed by medicine at all. She took to spending her practices sitting in the dugout doing her homework with her unaffected right hand, biting the tears back as Eri gracefully strutted out onto the field and stole her thunder. Her inability to successfully complete a practice relegated her to the position of benchwarmer, allowing an ecstatic Kawakami to take her place.

Sayaka told her friends and family to stop coming to softball games.

One day at lunch, when Sayaka refused to eat her own creation because she just felt too sad to do so, Aiko decided she'd had enough with this uncharacteristic behavior and decided she would take matters into her own hands. Eri always ate alone on a bench near a tall, shady tree, thoughtfully munching on sandwiches and the like while people-watching. People were starting to talk about this, whispering that Eri was too weird to make friends with, but she just viewed it as a time to get away from people.

Aiko threw down her lunch and marched over to Eri's tree, her hands balled into fists.

"Oh, hello," Eri said sweetly as Aiko approached.

"Listen to me, and listen to me good because I won't say this again," Aiko growled through clenched teeth, grabbing a good bit of Eri's collar in her hand. "Whatever you're doing to Sayaka I want you to stop. She's a ghost now. She used to be so happy and full of life, but then her left hand—her catching hand, I might add—started to hurt so badly that she can't even attend practices anymore. She has to sit on the bench pretty much all the time, barring you breaking your arm or something." Aiko took a hold of Eri's throwing arm. "That would be unfortunate, wouldn't it?"

"Are you threatening me?" Eri chirped.

"Maybe I am." Aiko tightened her grip until Eri grew fearful that she would really walk away with a broken arm. "Maybe I am." She loosened her grip. "All of this started happening once you came into the scene. Perhaps you could tell me why?" She tightened her grip again.

"Sayaka's a showoff. I had to put her in her place," Eri explained coldly.

"Are you kidding me? Sayaka never brags about her abilities. She just plays because that's what she loves to do. It's what she's loved since she could walk and talk and it's her dream," Aiko explained. "She never shows off, she never sticks her abilities in people's faces, or anything of the sort. She. Just. Plays."

"Do you want to know what I really did?" Eri whispered. Aiko nodded slightly. "I cursed the mitt so that when Sayaka slipped it on, it would cause her inordinate pain every time she tried to show me up." She paused. "Which is every time, of course."

"You're such a terrible liar!" Aiko roared. "Quit messing with Sayaka!" She opened her right hand and slapped Eri across the face with it. "This is a warning. If you don't stop messing with Sayaka, I'll punch you." She shot a cold glance at Eri and turned around, stomping off to her group again.

"What did you do?" Suzumi asked fearfully.

"I slapped her and told her to stop messing with you, Sayarin," Aiko said gracefully. "I hope I got the message across." Unfortunately, Aiko's message was not transferred to Eri, as Sayaka's hand still hurt so much that she couldn't participate in practices. Aiko, though, tried to heal Sayaka's hand again, with the same effects.

"Eri is ruining my life," Sayaka sobbed one day at lunch. "And there's no way to stop her."

"Yes there is," Sakura pointed out. "Confront her directly."

"Yeah, that's a good idea! Do you need me to show you any moves? I'd be happy to, you know," Aiko offered.

"No, moves will be unnecessary," Sayaka said, standing up, wiping her tears away, and going over to where Eri sat alone. "Eri. Meet me on the field tonight at 8 PM."

"8 PM?" Eri asked for clarification.

"8 PM," Sayaka said boldly, walking away.

"8 PM," Eri whispered with a nod. "I knew you'd come into the trap eventually. Perfect." Her expression was that of the cat that just ate the canary. "I can't wait until then, Sayaka. I just can't wait."

At 7:45, Sayaka left her house, wearing a thin black track jacket over her normal school uniform. She placed her stick in the pocket and kept touching it every so often to reassure herself that it was truly there. She was nervous throughout her entire walk to school, her heart pounding and her adrenaline rising, wondering what lengths she would have to go to so that Eri would cease muddling in her life. When she started down her normal path to the field, her heart rose and her stomach sank at the same time to signal her nervousness and her left hand started throbbing.

"Hello," Eri said quietly as Sayaka approached her. "I'm glad you decided to come."

"Why wouldn't I?" Sayaka asked. "I asked you to come. It would be terribly impolite of me to be a no-show." She held her left hand with her right hand in an attempt to quell the pain.

"I'm sure you're wondering about that," Eri said, indicating Sayaka's aching hand. "To tell you the truth, Sayaka…" Eri paused, looked down at the ground and looked up towards the sky before continuing. "I did that to you."

"WHAT?" Sayaka shouted. "You're the reason I can't do what I love I hate you!" She ran towards Eri, wanting to wrap her hands around her neck and coerce every breath forth from her disgusting body, but Eri held out her right hand and created a shield that protected her from Sayaka's assault.

"_Eris Power, Make Up!_" Eri cried, holding her hand aloft and transforming. Her sailor outfit was yellow with green accents and she wore yellow ballet flats. She made a quick pose before considering Sayaka again. "What do you say to that?"

"_Ganymede Satellite Power, Make Up!_" Sayaka shouted, raising her stick high to the sky and transforming.

"I knew it!" Eri exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. "Ah, I knew you would reveal yourself to me eventually. So, Ganymede, what do you plan to do to me?"

"I plan to lift this curse," Sayaka replied succinctly.

"Try to," Eri said, licking her lips expectantly. Sayaka nodded, shutting her eyes and allowing nearby sand to swirl around her. Right as she was going to give it an electrical charge and send it off towards Eri, though, her left hand throbbed with such intensity that she screamed out in pain and dropped the sand. With a cry of pain, she fell to her knees. "So weak. My master has been through such worse pain than that. Can you possibly imagine being sealed away and trying to break through that seal, though it was enacted by Sailor Moon?"

"Sailor Moon?" Sayaka repeated weakly, grunting in pain.

"That's right. Sailor Moon used her power to seal Chaos for now, but my efforts, as well as the efforts of my comrades, have boosted Chaos' power. I can't wait for the day of rebirth." Eri smiled. "On that day, I want to see you again. I want to be able to watch my master deal you pain. I want to watch as my master _kills you_!" Eri's arm grew to a shocking length and grabbed Sayaka around the neck. "How do you like that now? Is it painful? Does it hurt?" Her grip tightened. "Your friend threatened to break my arm. Maybe I should break your neck."

"No!" Sayaka protested, already feeling weaker.

"Just a little longer now and the final breath will leave your body…Your soul will go back to the Cauldron…Perhaps if you are lucky, you can be reborn as a cockroach." Eri cackled.

"Hey! Don't call my friend a cockroach!" Natsumi called out from a distance. Eri allowed Sayaka to watch as Natsumi, who was already transformed, stepped forward. "Let go of her!"

"You look just like Sailor Venus," Eri remarked. "Chaos tells tales of your mother's tragic demise. It seems as if she was resurrected."

"Sailor Venus is my mom," Natsumi explained. "She can't transform anymore, but I can! I'm Sailor Mini Venus, and I'm gonna punish you!" She pointed to Eri, who immediately chuckled.

"How cute." Eri dropped Sayaka, who immediately gasped for breath but quickly regained her footing. "What are you going to do, zap me?" Sayaka started concentrating on the sand again and soon a sandstorm was swirling around her. She applied an electrical charge and sent it flying off. With a satisfying crack, it slammed Eri's vulnerable back, causing her to fall to the ground and pant for air.

"Impressive, Sayarin!" Natsumi called.

"I suggest you use that wonderful sword now, Nacchi!" Sayaka replied, panting slightly. "That took a lot out of me. I need to sit down." She sat down on the field, watching as Natsumi put a fist to her chest, shut her eyes, and exhaled as the handle of her Pure Heart Sword emerged. She opened her eyes right away and pulled the entire sword out in one fluid motion, holding it out and watching as the heart on the end glowed. Sayaka felt the need to give it what was left of her power, so she concentrated on that heart glowing green and felt progressively weaker as her power transferred over to the heart.

With a ferocious war cry, Natsumi drew the sword and charged, plunging it deep into the button of Eri's uniform and watching as she was enveloped with white light. She extracted the sword once Eri was fully shrouded and watched as she turned into a pile of ash that hurriedly dissipated. Sayaka watched with a weary smile playing upon her face as Eri was killed, but exhaustion overtook her and she relaxed, closing her eyes and falling asleep.

"Sayarin!" Natsumi called out, shoving the sword back into her body. "Sayarin!" She rushed to Natsumi's side and knelt down to get to her level, placing her index finger beneath her nose to see if she was still breathing. She was, but in the soft, gentle manner that suggested sleep. "Sayarin, I'm glad you're okay." Through the white material of Sayaka's gloves, Natsumi could clearly see a scar on her left palm blinking before turning white and disappearing entirely. "That must be what caused you so much pain. To think that that monster over there…" She looked over to where Eri once stood. "Did that to you? That's horrible." In a lapse of thought, she started to touch Sayaka's hand with one finger, like someone might touch a newborn kitten. When she realized this, she withdrew her hand and a blush rose on her cheeks before she de-transformed.


End file.
